The water pump froze on My 2016 F150 with 79,000 miles, breaking the serpentine belt and leaving me stranded
on the road. This seems way to early for this to fail, could it have been prevented? I replaced the tensioner at the same time.

 

Any part on any vehicle can fail at anytime regardless of the year or mileage.

I’m sorry to hear that this happened to you but things like this just happens sometimes.

 

bull, most parts are designed/engineered for a target life. Of the 30 cars/truck only the older late seventies era did a water pump get replaced, sometimes with the timing chain. I wonder if a F150 every few minutes off the assembly line causes recalls, low quality parts...

 

Okay, if you say so but now you’re replying out of frustration and bordering on anger because of the sudden inconvenience and repair cost that you’re facing.

It’s a man made part so it’s not perfect.

All the best to you.

 

I don't know if there is a way to prevent a sudden part failure like that.

Possibly, flushing the cooling system every few years may improve or maintain lubricity of the coolant. However, it sounds like you experienced a catastrophic component failure, not a wear issue.
Therefore, I doubt it could have been prevented.

The old style water pumps had weep holes to help monitor them.
On one of my previous trucks, my water pump failed at less than 50k miles.
Sure, they are designed to live much longer, but sometimes things go wrong.

 

The coolant is really only good for 50k miles. Ford markets the service intervals way to long in my opinion. And way back in the 70s and 80s. We changed coolant every year. Still replaced more than my fair share of water pumps back then.

 

I'm very disappointed, not frustrated to have that super important part to fail. I work on machines from the 70's to current equipment and the designed lifespan is shorter on newer equipment.
Granted the new equipment produces parts faster the the Super Duty design of old equipment.I know now to change my coolant and serpentine belt on my 2018 F250 at 50K!

 

What engine?

My 3.5 eco lost its pump at 95k.

My '11 6.7 lost its pump at 40k.

 

It shouldn’t have failed, but things do happen. Other than a coolant change (which may or may not have helped), not much you can do except what you did now.

On some vehicles, the water pump is part of the maintenance schedule with the timing belt. Would have had it replaced at about the same mileage yours failed in one of those vehicles. More convenient but also more expensive even though it is considered regular maintenance.

If you didn’t overheat and kill a motor or get hurt on the road, then it’s frustrating but over and fixed now, and as these things go likely not a bank breaker

 

5.0, i thought normally we wouldn't have any major issues before 100k

 

The water pump issues on the 5.0's have been ongoing since they came out in 2011. Though it's a different engine than before it may still employ some of the same parts and designs.

 

If you ask a ford engineer, the part did its job. The factory warrantee is for 36000 miles or 60000km and anything over that is bonus. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. And yes, I know it sucks.

 

Ouch!
Was there no warning? Can't be toting every part spare everywhere. Hope it wasn't 876 miles from home on a cold ice covered roadway, snow blowing, coyotes on the prowl, at 2am, two miles west of "Hell's Half Acre". I do carry an extra belt, some flares, a small compressor, cheap tool kit, tire plugs too, but I guess I might should reconsider. Not sure of a 5.0, but the WPs in many now just use a O-ring seal, so a belt, tensioner, WP, some coolant, and tools including tensioner wrench might be something to haul in reserve. I never yet have had one just lock, but I've had some leak and / or make noises, they got replaced.

Someone mentioned 5.0s and WPs failing early ... I wonder why?

Off topic alert: ... Back in the 1950s we lived in western Texas so there was a few long trips back to Va. to visit family, let Grandparents see the kids, etc, ... but Mom & Dad would do it non stop swapping off driving to save time and motel expenses. We usually had a cooler for food, ate along the way by the roadway. Dad had a big stainless steel thermos (Stanley) bottle he'd start with full of coffee, he'd tie it somewhere under the hood to keep it warm for him & Mom. We also carried a water jug. Interstates were "so not", but there were some 4 lane highways, and while some towns had truck routes,rare was a bypass so one read a map as the other drove through trying for a short route. Dad usually carried a big GE tube caddy (it looked bigger then when I was 4) with tools and spare belt, generator brushes, point sets, flashlight batteries, etc. ... but no water pumps. There were no cell phones, no cell towers either. I remember a night our car's generator went out, was dark, dad turned out lights and followed a stranger's tail lights to get to a lit parking lot of a gas station where he could work on it while Mom slept. I still have that orange and grey tube caddy ... it's made of wood covered in colored vinyl with GE logos on it.

Somewhere I recall he bought some hot dags at a roadside diner, they were wrapped in silver stuff .... foil I guess. He placed them under the hood too, made a real treat our next roadside picnic. They probably cost $0.15 each back then.

Better than those settlers had it in 1840s crossing Kansas.

 

On my 1990 F150 with the 4.9 six, I had to replace the waterpump every 40k miles....... just like clockwork literally! I had that truck for 17 years! But depending on the engines/design, not unusual