Chrysler Repair: water pump: repeated premature wearout, small claims court, chrysler corp

Question
Hi, answering your questions regarding year and engine: it is a 1995 and a 3.3L engine.

Thank you,

Ann
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
I have had my water pump replaced 3 times since 2004.  1st time they replaced was feb 2004, still under warranty in 2005 so was replaced free but again new pump in 2006.  I looked back at work done on the car when owned previously and it looks like a water pump was put in in 2001.  Is there a reason for so many repairs to the water pump. Is it possible something could be rubbing against the pump?  Thank you
-----Answer-----
Hi Ann,
I haven't heard of a complaint like this before so there must be something awry in the interface between the pump and the engine. Because you didn't mention which engine I am not clear as to the design of the water pump/cooling system interface. But I would urge you to ask the dealership for the name of the Chrysler regional service manager and seek some recompense and remedy for this obvious faulty situation. Water pumps last much longer than 1 year and therefor you are not getting the expected wear that you are paying for. Either there is an original manufacturing defect (which should have been detected during the earlier warranty repair), a part defect (parts also carrt a warranty), or an installation defect (and you no doubt have paid dearly for these repairs, and will continue to do so until the situation is resolved). If you don't get a satisfactory resolution, a small claims court filing against the shop that has done these replacements is the final resort. Many pumps last for years and for more than 100,000 miles of use, so Chrysler Corp. needs to be made aware of this history and given an opportunity to make good on its implied warranty of serviceability of its mechanical parts for the purpose intended.
I would be interested to know what kind of response you get.
If you write again please tell me the engine size and car model/year that you have so I can be aware of that for other owners.
Roland

Answer
Hi Ann,
That is a very standard water pump setup so I don't see any reason for it to fail prematurely. Does it leak coolant from the impeller shaft, out the weep hole for that bearing? A small amount of weeping is normal; but obvious flowing is a sign of the bearing seal having failed. Or does the bearing fail and make a racket? I wondered if the drive belt might be too tight, but then noted that there is a spring-loaded belt tensionser pulley so that isn't something that can be overtightened by a mechanic.
There is a o-ring seal around the body of the pump that is supposed to mate with the surface of the timing chain cover. A new o-ring should come with the replacement pump. If instead of a leak out the impeller shaft of the pump there is leak at the interface of the pump body and the timing chain cover then that might be due to a scratch in the surface of the timing chain cover where the o-ring mates to create the seal. So if this happens again try to determine where the leak is occuring. If it is around the periphery of the pump then I would suspect that someone who worked on it the past scratched the surface of the timing chain cover. That scratch could be smoothed out or filled with epoxy and then smoothed out to eliminate that leak source.
Fortunately the labor on changing this pump is not as long as on other engines. But still it is not an inexpensive job.
So if this early failure occurs again, those are some of the things to look into. Where is the leak occuring, and what might be the basic cause?, before taking it apart so that it might be remediated as part of the repair process.
Roland