My used 2013 ES350 with 166,000 miles seems to not have any noise coming from the water pump. But, I've read many fail before 166,000 miles. Should I just keep going with it, or change it out now before too many more miles? I'd do it myself to save money. I've already replaced the idler pulley, belt tensioner pulley bearings, AC pulley bearing, and serpentine belt myself after finding them a bit noisy and with some play in them.

 

well thats kind of a tough question to answer... you know the old saying, if it aint broke, dont' fix it.. especially when you consider what dealerships charge for repair.. however in your case, you have the expertise to do it yourself, so it might be worth doing. I guess it would depend a lot on how much longer do you intend on keeping the car... I admire your ability to do those kinds of repairs... I am not mechanically inclined... my pop used to tell me growing up that I could tear up a steel ball with a powder puff... sad thing is he was right. lol

 

Water pump failures are not catastrophic in nature most of the time. Usually it just starts with a small leak. You get plenty of opportunities to replace it once it breaks. At least wait till your next scheduled belt replacement to do it.

It would make more sense to replace something like a fuel pump since it leaves you stranded once it goes. But even that I would not recommend. Until we get more statistic that certain components usually break at XX miles and rarely survive beyond YY miles it just makes little sense to replace them proactively. I personally heard of zero water pump failures on 6th generation ES.

 

I don't replace stuff that won't kill the car unless it's necessary.

On my old Hondas with interference motors and timing belts, I absolutely replaced them on schedule because not doing so risked catastrophic engine damage. But a water pump? You'll know it's bad long before it's bad enough to replace. At worst the impeller blades will erode and make the pump less effective, and you'll notice an odd creep of the temperature gauge when stopped in traffic, giving you plenty of warning that it's time to change it out even if there's no leak to tell you. And even that can be warded off for a long time if you keep up with scheduled coolant changes.

 

It would depend on hard the replacement is...if it’s a difficult repair, I’d pass until it starts weep. But if it’s an easy water pump and you don’t mind doing it? Yeah why not?

Something else to consider...if you’re going with aftermarket parts, the next water pump might not last as long. But you made it 166,000 miles on the original pump, that’s pretty good.

 

Yeah if there's nothing coming from the weep hole and the engine is running at a normal operating temperature, I'd just leave it.

 

Thanks for all the responses. I’ve decided to let it be and watch for failure. No sense spending money on something that isn’t a catastrophic failure. Seems to be running normal temperatures and not noisy.