My husband has a 78 t-bird and it has steam comming out of it. He replaced the water-pump 2 to 2 1/2 yrs ago. The warranty was only for 1 year should it need to be replaced this soon?
unless the pump is leaking it is not the problem
there is no set time a water pump will last, I have seen them last 200,000 miles and I have seen them last 4,000 miles.
It's possible. It depends on how many miles you've put on the car since then. The Water pumps on the older cars are not designed to go for more than 30-40K miles. Also if the car has been sitting the seals might have dried up a bit allowing for the steaming effect.
Years is the wrong way of looking at it. You should look at in mileage. And it depends on if the replacement was a new or re manufactured. Remans last about 1/3 the time (or mileage) of a new. Be sure to check the entire cooling system and fix the problem. I've seen people replace entire cooling systems ( radiators, water pumps, thermostats) only to find out it was a head gasket.
You didn't indicate from where the steam is originating. It could be from the radiator, radiator cap, coolant reservoir, cracked manifold, gaskets, hoses, etc, etc, etc, in which case, the water pump may have nothing to do with the problem (of course, a fault pump may CAUSE the problem, but, without more information, it's impossible to give you a specific answer). As far as how long water pumps last, it depends on the manufacture, whether it's new, used, or remanufactured, how much and how hard the vehicle is driven, etc etc etc. Generally speaking, a brand new water pump should last at least 10 years or 100,000 miles. Good luck!
