03 T&C Water Pump
 

First off, I want to thank everyone who has posted within this forum as to the issues that you had when attempting to replace your water pump yourselves.

As with others, I noticed that the water pump on my 03 T&C with only 42,000 miles was leaking. This was a VERY small leak, but a leak none the less. I inquired at the local parts store as to the cost of a new pump. 55 + tax. Looked at the Haynes manual and it didn't look like a difficult repair. However, after seeing the issues posted on the forum, I decided the very least to call the dealership. It turns out the the 03 came with the 7/70 powertrain with 100 deduct. (Funny, the salesman never mentioned the warranty at all when purchasing).

Made the appt. for Fri., take it in, and get a call about 1/2 hr. into the repair that the timing cover "broke" upon removal of the water pump. The "updated" cover + new timing gears and chain would not be available until Monday.

So, don't know about everyone else's opinion, but I think that maybe there was a design flaw with the original timing cover hindering the removal of the water pump that was corrected with this "updated" timing cover.

On the plus side, 300+ repair for only 100.