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mikekellynz
By mikekellynz | AA Member | 2 Posts | 3 May 2017 at 11:22am

The water pump in my friend's 2011 VW Touran recently broke down with 68,600 km on the clock. He had it repaired at the dealership that sold me the car, at a cost of a little over $1200.
I find it very unusual for the water pump to break down at this age/mileage. I've done a little research and common advice seems to expect the water pump to last usually for the life of the car, or at least 100,000kms.
I'd be interested in AA's opinion and advice on how long you reasonalbly expect the water pump to last.
What are the chances to claim this under the Consumer Guarantees act?

Anon
By Cade | AA Expert | 3937 Posts | 3 May 2017 at 11:59am

Hi there,
Water pump longevity can vary, and could also be affected by type used and when the antifreeze was changed.
As a general vehicle scenario, they can be replaced along with the first cam belt as a pre-caution, or most definitely at the 2nd cam belt interval.
If it fails before this, it could potentially be classed as a premature failure and under the CGA it would need to be proven that it was not reasonable for a vehicle of this age, mileage, condition to have this failure.

mikekellynz
By mikekellynz | AA Member | 2 Posts | 3 May 2017 at 1:27pm

Hi there, Thanks for that. When you say "if it fails before this", do you mean the first or second cam belt interval? The first would be about 100k, the second 200k. In either case <70k seems unreasonable to me. And you are talking about a first precautionary change at 100k - surely 70k is too early for an acceptable failure?
In short, in the AA's opinion, would <70k seem unreasonable for a water pump failure?
Thanks again,
Mike