Some years ago I heard about a trick from a professional mechanic who soaked
water pumps 24 hours in pure antifreeze to "prime" the watertight bearing
materials before installing the pump. They do seem to last longer, I've been
on the one in my 2.1 for over 100k. Time will tell on the one in my diesel.
Just a precautionary thought.

Jim

On Jan 8, 2008 4:36 PM, Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@turbovans.com>
wrote:

> I've been adding a water soluble oil which makes a fine rust inhibitor and
> water pump lubricant to all cars and vans I work on now for almost 20
> years.
> I think this helps  too.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Allan Streib
> Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 1:17 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Water pump?
>
> One thing about water pumps in general is they will last longer if you
> use the proper coolant and change it every two years.  I'm not saying
> this will make the VW pump last forever, but it will help.
>
> Allan
> --
> 1991 Vanagon GL
>
> John Meeks <vanagon@GMAIL.COM> writes:
>
> > On Jan 8, 2008 2:05 PM, Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@turbovans.com
> >
> wrote:
> >
> >> I have not seen a subaru water pump fail yet.  I'm sure they must,
> >> but they're good for 100K easily as far as I know, even more.
> >> Scott
> >> www.turbovans.com
> >>
> >
> > FWIW my wife's 96 Subi Outback has never had the water pump
> > replaced.  230K miles.
> >
>