156 - Water Pump

My 156 (1998 2.0 SP2, 64k miles) is coming up for service and MOT.
There are a number of items that may need attention, so I'm looking for
advice and guidance from the group (this may involve a number of posts,
so please bear with me).

I've noticed a number of posts where people mention that they've
replaced water pump at the same time as doing cambelts, so - 2
questions -

Can the water pump be replaced "in isolation" i.e. without doing
cambelt at the same time ?

What's the life expectancy of the water pump (if it ain't broke, don't
fix it) ?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Probably can be done separately but is convenient to get it done with
the cambelt & aux belt change.
Got mine done at 72K miles.
Some have mentioned that the water pump has plastic vanes so they're
not as durable. Not sure bout that but believe it isn't too expensive a
part to get fixed at the same time. A seized or broken pump would do
you in.

savamac wrote:
> My 156 (1998 2.0 SP2, 64k miles) is coming up for service and MOT.
> There are a number of items that may need attention, so I'm looking for
> advice and guidance from the group (this may involve a number of posts,
> so please bear with me).
>
> I've noticed a number of posts where people mention that they've
> replaced water pump at the same time as doing cambelts, so - 2
> questions -
>
> Can the water pump be replaced "in isolation" i.e. without doing
> cambelt at the same time ?
>
> What's the life expectancy of the water pump (if it ain't broke, don't
> fix it) ?
>
> Thanks in advance for your comments.