So just driving today to get some lunch, decided to give it a quick second gear pull and when I let off I hear a noise under the car like I hit a rock. Lost power steering and battery light on in the dash. Pulled over and look under the hood and the water pump pulley is laying there chillin.

I'm thinkin ok, maybe the bolts came loose and the pulley jumped off, no big deal. But No, the damn pulley is still bolted to the plate on the pump. The round piece of the water pump that the pulley bolts too slipped right off the shaft on the pump.
I can grab the water pump shaft and spin it and there is no play like the bearings are worn and its not locked up.
Only 15k on this pump. WTF?

I searched and can't seem to find any info on this happening to anyone else, Anyone heard of this or is this just a freak accident?

 

Was it an oem pump?

 

Gates

 

Was belt OEM? If not, is it Possible it was maybe .5" short?

 

I'm not sure about the belt it was on there when I bought the evo and it looked ok so I never changed it. It didn't seem to hard to get on and off when I did the timing belt so I doubt it was the wrong one.

 

Now I don't know whether to sped the $200 on an Oem pump or get another Gates. Everything I read about the Gates pumps is that they are good stuff.

 

I'd bet gates would like to see the pump that came apart. Probly give you a new one for it.

Title is misleading the pump didn't fall off, it fell apart.

 

Pics

 

I would never even consider putting an aftermarket pump on these cars (or any 4G/6G engine for that matter).
About once every month to two months I get either a dropped pulley/snout four cylinder or a V6 towed into the shop with a grenaded engine from a water pump failure and it is always a 5k-20k old aftermarket pump. Mitsubishi pumps are worth the extra money; I'd rather spend an extra $100 now and know it will be changed each time when I choose as preventative maintenance, not when it decides as failure replacement.

 

So you've seen this failure before on other engines? The shaft is not broken, just the piece that is pressed on the shaft that the pulley bolts too just seemed to walk itself off the shaft.

I'm just wondering if there is anything else that could have caused this besides a bad pump.

 

Yep, all the time. I'm sure there are plenty that last just fine, but no one brings their car into the shop to tell you their water pump is ****. They only tell you about when it craps out.
You couldn't pay me to put a non-mitsu pump on any of my cars. I'd rather have a 250k factory pump than a brand new aftermarket (and have made that choice a few times).