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I just got my car service at the dealership for my 100,000 tune up they performed a coolant fluid exchange then nine days later my coolant pump breaks is that normal?

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    You're asking did the dealer break your water pump when doing the service? Maybe, we could not answer that. After 100,000 km/miles, some stuff is likely to be worn or brittle and vulnerable to damage. However the dealers tend to know what gets fragile, so unlikely to be them. Its likely to be a coincidence.
    – Criggie
    Mar 19, 2017 at 0:20
  • Not so much asking if they broke it, more so wondering why they didn't see if it were worn.
    – Melissa
    Mar 22, 2017 at 4:49
  • A tune up would not open the water pump and check for wear or damage. Some engine bays require items like the radiator to be completely removed before accessing the pump so you'd be incurring labour costs for unessential work. If you had suspicions of cooling problems then asking for some more investigations would have been good.
    – Criggie
    Mar 22, 2017 at 5:31
  • Thanks for the answers I appreciate it. Now you stated the tune up does not make it possible to view the water pump so when they did the coolant exchange did the water pump have any relation to it?
    – Melissa
    Mar 22, 2017 at 16:21
  • A coolant flush is often a drain and refill of all the coolant+water+antifreeze mix in the block, hoses, and radiator. So its possible the draining dislodged some gunk which interfered with the waterpump. But its impossible to know for sure. Owning and maintaining a car is an expensive liability, sometimes the costs come in lumps.
    – Criggie
    Mar 22, 2017 at 22:11

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100,000 miles is a "normal" amount of miles for a water pump to break in the sense that it is not unheard of for that to happen. Its difficult to peg a number to how long to expect that a water pump should last because there tends to be a lot of variability. My friend's water pump went out in that ballpark, I'm not sure the exact number of miles but his car was less than 10 years old at the time.

Water pump failure could also include a blown water pump gasket. My BMW sprung a leak from the water pump at around 140K. My dad has had the water pump gasket blow twice on his Mazda B2200 and he only has 170K on it. (its a 28 year old car, just low miles).

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  • That isn't even a good rule of thumb ... my SIlverado has 173k miles on it with the original water pump. I'm sure there are others with much more. Do you have any references which corroborate your assertion? Mar 19, 2017 at 3:51
  • I mean "normal" in the sense that its not unheard of, not in the sense that its expected. Though the pump itself isn't likely to break by 100,000, it certainly can. I was riding with a friend when his water pump went out, I don't know the exact mileage on his car at the time but it was less than 10 years old. I was also thinking of a general failure including a blown gasket. My BMW sprung a leak from the water pump at around 140. My dad has had the water pump gasket blow twice on his Mazda B2200 and he only has 170 on it. (its a 28 year old car, just low miles)
    – rviertel
    Mar 19, 2017 at 18:54
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    My point is, there is no rule of thumb here. Water pump failure occurs when it occurs. You cannot put a mileage on something which has no rhyme or reason to when it fails. Some will only last 50k miles, while others will last the life of the engine. Mar 19, 2017 at 19:14
  • I agree with that statement completely. I interpreted the OP's question "is that normal?" as asking if something sounds out of the ordinary, which it doesn't. A water pump breaking at 100,000 miles isn't really surprising.
    – rviertel
    Mar 19, 2017 at 19:20

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