Water pump and valve cover died at 15,000 miles? WHY?

[redraif]

So all has been going well with the fellow. Mom has been using him, no issues. Still have to deal with the darn cat. Code came back!

Anyway. We have the sport on the wekends, Mom during the week. Well last night while parking in the garage apparently the sport decides to start weeping coolant. Nothing large enough for me to even notice or smell. I drove along completely unaware. No Smell, no temp issues. Well I drove 10 minutes down the road to the bus station. I parked and did a once over as always... by then I had a nice little waterfall coming out the dead center bottom. I looked some more... the driver side wheel well, suspension and tire were covered in coolant. UGH!

Well rather then let it sit leaking coolant I decided to risk the leak and drive to the mechanic. Better than the 2-3 hour wait on the tow truck. 15 minute drive with the house in between. Windows down heat blaring and off we went. Temp held dead center on the gauge, even through a few lights. Started to creak up by the house, so I stopped and let it cool.

I was able to top off the radiator without it causing me a bath in coolant. It really did not take much at all. ODD! Then I looked at the reservior. It was still at the max level. ******???

Why was it not drawing from the res? So once topped off and sitting for about 15 minutes, I took to the rest of the trip. 5 more minutes and we were at the mechanic. The temp had started creaping again as I pulled in. I parked and it was waterfall time again.

I told him I suspected the water pump, but odd cause we changed it when we changed the timing belt at 225,000. We are now at 240,000??? Why was the res still full. Asked him to check out the oil leak on the front of the motor leaking down the oil pan. If it was acessible with the water pump change then we might as well do it.

I get a call back. The water pump is indeed bad. So I was right... but the oil leak is the valve cover???? Well he changed the valve cover when he did the water pump and timing belt.

So is it at all normal that the water pump and valve cover prematurely failed at 15,000 miles????

 

[Eric M]

Were the parts OEM?

 

[redraif]

Probably not, but his assistant is looking that all up and it supposed to let me know tomorrow morning. The repair was done before I realized just how differnt the quality of the OEM mistuparts are over the part store versions.

 

[PirateMcGee]

its possible they messed up the install....

 

[Toasty]

Botched install or aftermarket parts, Montero's eat aftermarket parts like they're candy. Never use an aftermarket anything on timing parts including water pump and especially tensioner. You'll get 40k if you're lucky.

Valve covers shouldn't leak even with decent gaskets, torque to spec and only use sealant where specified.

 

[redraif]

Water pump repaired... waited on the valve cover gasket

So I got word back... pump was under warrenty so new part is free. Labor is not... ugh.... $220.00 later.. it's fixed.

Here is the kicker...
the pump did not fail.
The pump seal did not fail.
It was a seal behind the water pump. They still exchanged the pump under warranty though.

So I have another new one!

Valve cover had to wait. $300 more was not in the cards right now. No one was interested in doing the work under warrenty. They wanted to say I had the gasket on there for almost 50,000 miles. I said no way. Turck is at 240,000 on the clock. We bought it at 223-224,000 ish. Don't make be break out the transmission papers... first repair in the rig. Literally tower it from the owner to the tranny shop. Suddenly they verified the 225,000 milegae I told them. Ummm Hmmm... I plan to fight this one with them to do something to make it right.

Man I wish there was a way labor would be included under parts warrenty situations. Then I would have been fine....