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New GMB water pump going bad after 2 months

srimes

srimes

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Cabot, AR
I installed a new GMB brand water pump that I bought from Advanced Auto a couple of months ago. My stock pump was fine, but the heater tube was rusted and leaking, and since the Jeep has 190k on it I figured I'd chance the pump while I had it off.

For the past few weeks I ocationally hear what I thought was belt chirping/squealing when I first start up, and it goes away after running a little bit. I finally got around to looking at the and pulled the belt of, and I noticed that the water pump pully will rock a little! And I finally tossed the old pump last week, so I can't put it back on. At least it isn't leaking yet.

The new POS has the lifetime warrenty, so I can swap it. But if this is a bad brand I'll pay for a better one. Did I just get a fluke, or should I get a different brand? I hate fixing things twice.
 
I had two GMB pumps go out in two years, both had been replaced under warranty. The second time I ended up getting CSK to refund my purchase amount and I bought a new one from the dealer. That was about 6 years ago and it's still on that engine. FWIW, I guess. I've had customers and friends who had better results from the OE stuff.
 
I was under the impression the GMB's were pretty well made. I also unnecessarily replaced my stock pump with one in the past year. I've also recently started hearing some squealing on start up. Time to go check my belt tension...
 
fyrfytr1717 said:
I was under the impression the GMB's were pretty well made. I also unnecessarily replaced my stock pump with one in the past year. I've also recently started hearing some squealing on start up. Time to go check my belt tension...
Click to expand...

Yeah that was my impression. Guy at work recommends going with rebuilt units because they use factory castings that are higher quality. What do yall think?
 
MAY POP said:
Ive evan had to replace Napa pumps after a couple years. Seems to me the belt tension and age of belt is important. Just enough tension to keep AC from squeeling.
Ron
Click to expand...

Yeah I may have had the belt a little on the tight side. But I don't think it was kill-a-water-pump-in-two-months tight. Guess I'll take it back and try 1 more GMB and set the belt as loose as I can get away with and see how it works out.
 
I swapped the pump and the squeak is still there :mad:. But there is play in the old pump shaft so it wasn't a total waste. I just need to figure out what else is bad. I can't really tell where the sound is coming from, but I'm guessing the idler pulley on the passenger side.
 
replace the idler pulley if it's getting long in the tooth, but I'd suspect the harmonic balancer if you're still getting the belt noise. I've seen a ton of balancer failures between 150,000 and 200,000 miles
 
I am going through a very similar set of events. I replaced my perfectly good 20 year old water pump chasing cooling problems with a GMB pump from Advance Auto. 2 weeks later, the thing starts squeaking. I take everything back apart and get a refund from AA parts and reinstall my old water pump. Fast forward a couple months to last week, it starts making noise after 20 years of service. I go down to Autozone and get a duralast and install it. It was noisier than any water pump I have had yet immediately. It gets quieter after some driving but it still really noisy everytime I go anywhere. I replaced the idler pulley this last time too. I am sure it is not the idler pulley or any other accessory. I am pretty much ready to send my @!#$%^& Jeep to the crusher. I have a new kid and no time to be screwing with freaking water pumps every week. Are there any quality water pumps out there? I tighten the belt the same every time. I am sure it is not the belt tension causing these to go bad.
 
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OkieXJ said:
I am going through a very similar set of events. I replaced my perfectly good 20 year old water pump chasing cooling problems with a GMB pump from Advance Auto. 2 weeks later, the thing starts squeaking. I take everything back apart and get a refund from AA parts and reinstall my old water pump. Fast forward a couple months to last week, it starts making noise after 20 years of service. I go down to Autozone and get a duralast and install it. It was noisier than any water pump I have had yet immediately. It gets quieter after some driving but it still really noisy everytime I go anywhere. I replaced the idler pulley this last time too. I am sure it is not the idler pulley or any other accessory. I am pretty much ready to send my @!#$%^& Jeep to the crusher. I have a new kid and no time to be screwing with freaking water pumps every week. Are there any quality water pumps out there? I tighten the belt the same every time. I am sure it is not the belt tension causing these to go bad.
Click to expand...

Buy a pump from the dealer, its worth the extra cost. My dad had the same problem with his 1987 Cherokee. The shop kept putting on rebuilt pumps and he went through 4 of them in one year. Put on a new pump from the dealer and he sold it 7 years later with that same pump.
 
This thing is 20 years old, can I still buy a pump from the dealer? I'll try anything at this point although I'm not going to get excited about installing my 4th water pump in a few months. The GMB and Duralast were "new" and not the reman'd but that doesn't seem to matter. I'll give the stealership a call later and see if they can hook me up with a new one. Thanks for the tip.
 
I would stay away from anything GMB makes. It all cheap Chinese crap. Buy OEM or aftermarket from the USA. Unfortunately most autopart stores use distributors and whole sellers that buy their parts from off shore manufactires to control cost. Good for consumers you may think. But not really once you think about it. Most autopart stores offer a limited lifetime warrenty. Almost all of them. They have nothing to loose if the part goes bad. They are not out any money and don't really care who they are getting their parts from as long as the mark up nets them 20 -30% proffit margin.

You might want to buy a Hesco high volume WP. They are a bit pricey but you will go through 2 to water pumps before replacing one of these pluse you get 30% more water flow which translates into improved cooling.
 
I thought about the hesco pump. I would be willing to pony up the money if the darn thing would work without squeaking. I'll have to compare that option to the new dealer one if it still exists.

Edit: Unfortunately it looks like the Hesco pump doesn't have a warranty. 30 return policy. I think I'll go with the dealer option first if its available, especially since the Hesco pump is $170.

http://www.hesco.us/shop.asp?action=details&inventoryID=45086&catId=7967
 
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Yes, you can still buy the dealer pump. Some parts are ok to buy aftermarket but in my opinion some stuff you don't want to have to take apart more than once, and its worth spending the extra money. I'd stay away from the Hesco pump, I've heard both good and bad things. For $170, that is a crappy warranty and not something I'd want to have to take apart again.
 
The dealer pump is about $135. I just ordered one from the local Jeep dealership. It at least has a 1 year warranty. I'll pay $135 not to change the damn thing out every month. Hopefully it is in fact better quality than the part store offerings.
 
Before you go too far, check that the belt isn't running up on the front lip of the pulley on the waterpump. It appears that the new pump I got had the pulley flange pressed on the shaft about .060 too far and the belt was trying to ride up the flange. All the pumps they had were the same. I added a small spacer between the pulley and t he flange and bingo, no more squeel.
 
Interesting point. I'll make sure the belt is on the middle of the pulley before I drop all that cash. It would be great is that is the only problem.
 
fwiw, the GMB pump didn't crap out, I just thought it did. It was the distributer that started making noise shortly after I put the pump on. The GMB pump is doing fine. Granted it's only 5 months later now.
 
So the belt being off center on the water pump's pulley can make it squeel? My belt is not completely on center. The new pump is crappy. The belt hangs off the pulley about 1mm towards the engine. So adding a spacer between the pulley and the pump would the problem worse. I'd have to press the mounting plate on further or something. I'm about to go pick up my new Mopar pump from the dealer and hopefully solve this once and for all.
 
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