Water Pump Nightmare

[rather_b_boatin]

I have an 01' Max SE 3.0 and I took it into a local shop to to do a water pump @ 135k miles. $450 later it leaked (from weep hole) after 2 months. (didn't leak to begin with, just wanted to stay ahead of it). 2nd time shop covered the part & charged me $150 1/2 labor to install. I thought that was fair enough. 2 months later it leaked again, again I took it to the shop this time they covered 100%, did an oil change while at it and charged me $35 for the oil change. I thought fair enough but why the heck is this thing eating these water pumps? So true to form approx. 2 months later the weep hole did its thing. This time I went to Nissan and paid $118 for an OEM Nissan water pump, they just installed it. Charged me another $150 1/2 labor stating since it was not the same brand pump labor wasn't covered this time. Has anyone run into a bad batch of Advance Auto (whatever brand/cheap $50) water pumps? Or this scenerio? Does this sound like a reasonable course of action or should I be looking for something else here? Thanks in advance for any response. $903 into a water pump, trying to do some good preventive maintenance....

[Nahkapohjola]

Originally Posted by rather_b_boatin

I have an 01' Max SE 3.0 and I took it into a local shop to to do a water pump @ 135k miles. $450 later it leaked (from weep hole) after 2 months. (didn't leak to begin with, just wanted to stay ahead of it). 2nd time shop covered the part & charged me $150 1/2 labor to install. I thought that was fair enough. 2 months later it leaked again, again I took it to the shop this time they covered 100%, did an oil change while at it and charged me $35 for the oil change. I thought fair enough but why the heck is this thing eating these water pumps? So true to form approx. 2 months later the weep hole did its thing. This time I went to Nissan and paid $118 for an OEM Nissan water pump, they just installed it. Charged me another $150 1/2 labor stating since it was not the same brand pump labor wasn't covered this time. Has anyone run into a bad batch of Advance Auto (whatever brand/cheap $50) water pumps? Or this scenerio? Does this sound like a reasonable course of action or should I be looking for something else here? Thanks in advance for any response. $903 into a water pump, trying to do some good preventive maintenance....

Bad pumps, too tight belt? So far all cheap pumps I have replaced have been ok.