Back in 2003 I put a remanufactured water pump from O'Riely Auto parts on my car. It finally failled about amonth ago or started leaking pretty bad anyway. The original thread is here.
https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/remanufactured-water-pump-anybody-used-one-221421/
So I got about four years out of it and since I don't drive it as much now that I have a truck I'm guesstimating about 40k to 50K miles out of it. That's the bad news. The good news is it had a limited lifetime warranty on it, so I should've got it replaced at no charge which I eventually did. My only hang up was my brother-in-law purchased it using his employee discount and no longer works there and I couldn't find my reciept. Employee purchases aren't tracked using a phone# like everyone else so they could find no record of it being sold. Luckily I found an old recipt for something else that had his employee# on it, took it to them, they found where it had been sold, honored the warranty, and I got a free replacement. They also transfered the new one into my name and phone# so if it fails I shouldn't have so much trouble agian. So in short the reman didn't even last half as long as the stock one. Others may have better luck. If you buy a parts store reman make sure it comes with a lifetime warranty.

 

Moral to this good story is keep your receipts.

 

Definately. I know I have it somewhere but couldn't find it. Found recipts for just about everything else I bought there(which is what saved me having to buying another one). I put my new one in my FSM so I won't loose it.

 

4 years and 50k miles is not that bad...
I'm guessing you didn't pay as much for a replacement Mazda OEM unit from the dealer...


-Ted

 

I think the remans from O'riely are 60 or 65 dollars. I used my brother-in-law's employee discount at the time. I can't remember what I paid but it was less than $50. Less than half the price of a new OEM one from Mazdatrix.

 

How long might a new OEM water pump last though? I guess you did get yours replaced on warranty, but from what I hear replacing the water pump is fairly tedious.

 

I would hope alot longer than this reman'ed one did for what they cost, but I have no idea. My original one lasted around 170k mi. Changing the pumps not to bad for me since I run an electric fan. A bunch fo the stuff normally in the way that has to be removed is gone already. If I still had the fan shroud and fan it would be a bigger pain. Also I don't remove the pump housing from the motor. I only remove the pump from the housing. I didn't even touch the radiator hoses. Just the alternator and the belts and pulleys.

 

also something to think about, water pumps are one of the most susceptible engine components to fail when not in use, letting the car sit for any extended amount of time isn't going to do any favors for it, even a mazda water pump won't last much longer than 5 years if only used periodically.