Can belt tension kill a water pump?
 

After replacing my cam belt the last time my accessory belt started squealing. I did what seemed reasonable at the time and re-tensioned the belt, problem solved.

A while after that (I think months rather than weeks) my engine starts to make god awful knocking noises at low revs under load like when pulling away in traffic. Then it does it all the time.

I eventually identified it by rocking the waterpump pully back and fourth, clunk clunk. New waterpump and 2 months later its starting to make the clunking under load again. WTF!! I tensioned the belt according to the haynes manual specs (I dont recall the belt defection value but it seemed reasonable at the time) I have since slackened the belt right off. I can live with the squeal on startup untill I figure this out.

What else could be causing rapid waterpump death?

I suppose it started a while after I installed my crank wheel system for MS

Attachment 204510

Could the slight imbalance from this be causing problems? Its welded to the centre section of the damper not the outer part with the belts. I didnt dynamically balance it but if supercharger pullys and shit dont cause probs then this should be ok right?

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks

Wouldn't think that would be doing it. Belt tension will wear parts faster, but I wouldn't think in a matter of a few months.

Well in that case maybe I have a sound (ish) case for returning the pump to mazda under warrenty.

With 2 water pumps having suffered the same demise there is clearly an underlying problem that needs solving. The damper is where I would start. The correct functioning of it is critical to the longevity of other, more important, items such as the oil pump.

I'm about to replace my stock item with an ATI superdamper in a weeks time and will have a similar issue in mounting a 60-2 tooth TEC trigger wheel to the rear of the ATI, ditching my Vishnu set-up in the process. I'll add photo's of the eventual set-up to my website once it's done.

Not really sure what I can do about the damper though. I need it for the engine to run :( Its operation shouldn't have been affected by the toothed ring because it was welded to the centre section. I suppose I could turn down the thickness of the ring to further reduce weight but Joes crankwheel has a huge billet of aluminium + toothed wheel on it without any problem.

Could anything else cause premature pump failure?

Could my alternator bearings be causing problems?

I had my tension pretty damn tight at one point in time. Eventually I noticed I had pretty odd crank wobble and got worried. I replaced the crank pulley and all was well, the old one was misshapen, I have to blame uneven tension...