5 oem fgd pumps

5.3 Ecotec Waterpump bad at 40k

Original Post

Has anyone run into issues with their waterpump at an unusually low milage? I have a 2019 Silverado 1500 RST 5.3L V8 Ecotec with just over 40k miles and I need a waterpump already. To compound the situation it seems that this particular waterpump part #12708893 is nationally back ordered. There doesn't appear to be any recall or even the h service bulletin, but it certainly seems odd that my pump went early and there's none to be had. Any insight anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Replies

It happens. Pretty much all parts follow the bathtub curve for failure. Your pump made it to the bottom of the curve, but the bottom of the curve isn't zero, just a small percentage, and yours just happened to fail relatively early.

Anything can fail unfortunately mass produced vehicles makes for mass produced and sometimes faulty parts . As for the part there are no water pumps anywhere pretty sure gm has caught up on parts for the most part

This makes me curious. I been looking at lots of 2019s recently and I notice a common theme I see when I inspect the motor compartment. The degas tank is almost always low. If you dont mind me asking, how did your pump fail. Leaking or noisey or other?

Bearings are noisy, I'm sure catastrophic failure not far behind.

My well cared for 2018 Silverado LT (5.3l) with 44k on it just blew up the water pump last night while driving. Had it towed to my local garage since the nearest dealership is 50 miles away. After contacting Chevrolet Warranty support, they informed me that my truck is 1 month out of warranty and they will do nothing.

You really cannot expect them to honor the warranty whether it's one day, one month, or one year out of warranty. Terms of an agreement are cast in stone, and limits are set. I'm not defending GM here, it's just the way it is....and if they bend the rules for you, they would have to bend them for everyone. This situation is no different than for AFM failures. The failures are few and far between statistically and in reality, but all you hear about is the failures. I'm about 300 miles shy of 200K, and my motor and water pump are rockin' along just fine.

I just replaced my water pump on my silverado 1500 5.3 it had 55000 thousand miles my mechanic said he thinks it's a bad design to much pressure from the belt on a single pump bearing no notices on a recall

Believe mine just went out at 55k.

I just replaced mine at 55000 thousand way to soon

Given there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of GM trucks using this design, and the vast majority of them last much longer than that, perhaps you just happened to get a pump that failed early. If you don't understand this concept, google "failure bathtub curve".

I am going out on a limb here and saying it's related to the slip fit one time use belt. There's no tensioner and as the belt rotates you have tight and loose spot, something has to give and the weak point is the water pump pulley. I would highly recommend getting a tensioner conversion for these motors, add a belt tensioner and it will solve the issue. You won't have to cut the belt off and replace a good belt if you need to remove the belt.

I had mine replaced 49,466 miles under warranty a couple of years ago. The bearings started making a squeaking/grinding sound and once my dealer heard it, there were no questions asked. Luckily it failed before my warranty was up.

Could be lack of use.......................40,000 miles on a 5 year old truck...............that's just 8,000 miles/year.

I have a 2020 GMC Sierra with the 5.3 L engine. With a bad water pump with under 50,000 miles not very happy they’re telling me the water pump is on backorder and I work for GM.

Just watched a few videos. Water pump replacement is about a one hour job on these trucks. Not a major deal. Pump does cost a little over $100, which seems steep, but all auto parts stores in my area have them on the shelf. Buy a socket set and get to work guys. Looks very straightforward and not complicated at all.

Where did you get the tensioner conversion kit?

It’s a PITA.. Especially if the bushing in the compressor housing comes out. Trying to figure out what to do now.. I may have to remove the pump again to gain access to the A/C compressor