I had a car once that required a timing belt change every 35,000 miles which seemed kind of harsh. But it was a high reving overhead cam unit and I just bit the bullet and did what the factory ordered. I don't know whether or not changing the belt out at such low mileage was because of a bad design or not. They never looked bad when they came off the engine. Now with these water pumps, bad design or not, we're stuck with them unless we want to put in one of those expensive electric jobs. I don't think I have read of any failures before 35K miles but it seems prudent to make it a "regular" maintenance item at around that mileage. Either that or wring our hands with anticipation that "today might be the day" our pump bites it every time we drive somewhere. And I do mean replacing the whole thing, not just the impeller. That's my plan.
Karl
