1999 Vw Tdi Bug

[castaway6837]

I have a VW TDI 'New' Bug and recently hit a deer. The body work was done but, the water pump gave out about 20 miles after I picked it up from the shop. Now I have a blown head gasket and a possible cracked head. I only have about 60K on the engine and I'm not sure what the service life is for the water pump. My insurance company refuses to pay claiming that the damage to the vehicle wasn't great enough to cause the water pump to go out. I hit the deer when I was traveling about 50 MPH and it hit on the passengers side. I can't believe that the water pump would fail within 20 miles from leaving the shop and not be related to the collision. Please advise.

Castaway

[boschmann]

Were any of the cooling system components replaced, perhaps the radiator? If so, I'd say there was a problem with the repair and the cooling system wasn't properly repaired (bled of air), causing it to overheat in a few miles. Bleeding out all the air oftre replacing a component can be tricky to do. If it overheated badly enough it can blow out other components like water pumps and head gaskets, etc.... If the deer damage was severe enough it could cause physical damage to body parts enough to collapse and hit the pump. That is the only way the pump could have been damaged and this should have been seen during the first repair. Otherwise the pump should last at least 100K+ miles.