Cayman Water Pump Catastrophic Disassembly

[johnhackett364]

Well, maybe not catastrophic in the usual sense, but this is a term we used at work when you had more parts at the end than at the start .......

Last year I had a water pump shaft failure. It broke clean across between the pump and pulley, which I thought was pretty good going for 18mm steel. No other damage done though. Anybody else seen this on the Cayman or 911? I've never come across this before on any car I've owned, etc.

 

[Buddy]

I've never heard of a water pump shaft shearing in the way you describe on anything and as you say to shear an 18mm shaft is quite incredible, I take it that the bearing seized solid or something jammed the impeller? I'd hate to think of what may have been in the cooling system large enough to jam the impeller in such a way. You say no other damage so I guess you pulled up pretty quickly which was lucky, was there a big bang or was the first indication the warning lights following the polyrib belt failing or coming off?

 

[uknick]

In this thread somebody talks about a Boxster water pump failure http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=48&t=1242757&mid=149141&nmt=Porsche+exteded+warranty+%2D+should+I%3F%3F+%2D+987+Cayman+S

 

[johnhackett364]

It looked as though it was a fatigue failure because the break clearly started at one edge of the shaft, this being slighty darker in colour than the rest of the break. Maybe a manufacturing fault? It was all very unexciting thank goodness, just the warning light coming on and me thinking the belt had gone and that the battery wasn't charging. Then I wondered what it drove and thought it might be an idea to stop - good thinking! Looking at uknick's link to the Boxster thread, I wasn't aware of any ticking but this sort of failure would happen very quickly. It sounds like one of those hopefully never to be repeated events. The mileage was around 35k by the way.

 

[Motorhead]

Sounds like a lucky escape John, most likely as you say a rare fatigue failure. Cayman Gen I or II? In addition to the PH thread, I seem to recall that there's been quite a lot of chatter about water pump failures on Planet-9 too. Incidentally, I can put you on the Cayman Register contact list if you give me your location/Region ( http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=729177&mpage=4&key= ) Jeff

 

[johnhackett364]

Hi Jeff, mine is a Gen I. I'll take a look at Planet-9 out of interest. Yes, thanks, please do add me to the Register list, I'm in Wetherby, Yorkshire. Cheers, John