Water pump has oil leak?

KGRATON

MEMBER
SATURN

Took my 2004 Saturn Ion 3 with 40K miles to dealer for oil change/ tire rotation. Has never needed any repair work, only taken in for oil changes, scheduled maintenance. Dealer suprised me by saying my water pump had small oil leak, and needed to be replaced. No symptoms of trouble were seen by me (not running hot, not losing oil or coolant, etc.) Quote of $600, but since warranty recently expired, they offered a one-time reduction of 50%, leaving me with an estimate of approx. $300. How can a water pump leak oil, and is it possible for this leak to be seen during a simple oil change? They said leak was very small, and repair work was not an emergency. Was told I could still drive for "a while" before having pump replaced. (FYI. Pump works fine. Just has a "bad seal" that requires replacing entire pump)

1 Reply

CLY

MECHANIC
308 POSTS

If the car has a 2.0 liter engine it looks like the waterpump is in the timing cover. So it could be possable for there to be an oil leak. I would try and look at it and see how bad it is. If they are willing to split the cost it might not be a bad idea to get it done even if it is a small leak. Otherwise 6 months down the road it could turn into a large leak and you will be flipping the entire bill.

Cly