Originally Posted by Russianblue

I mostly agree with you...except...mine DID grenade. I am talking about complete bearing failure and serp belt flying off and coolant spewing out. I'm lucky it wasn't worse. When i ultimately got the pump off, ball bearing literally spilled out across the garage floor. Now, that said - I still agree with you. It's not the days of the cheap plastic wheels on the e36.

This was before I knew about (rather, respected enough) the warnings with regard to cooling systems. It just took that one time for me. that was on my 2003, 5 years ago, with 131k miles. it'd been dealer maintained prior to my buying it with 100k miles on it. My dad was the previous owner and had it at the dealer constantly, for all the classic issues (he's NOT a car guy). I guess i just assumed the water pump had been changed. Some of the dealer records were a little unclear what they did.

I figure if the thermostat is to be replaced...and i have to drain coolant, $60 for a new water pump to knock it out at the same time is a no-brainer.