2007~2015 Another CX-9 Water Pump tale, but with a twist...

[Ohiopuck40]

Long time lurker,1st time poster...been a fan of this site for years. Thank you for such a great resource!

I have been reading for years all of the Water Pump threads here(on Reddit and any other Ford site as well) and how many people have been negatively impacted by the internal design and devastating results. Mine is a story to show how great this vehicle has been to me!
I bought my 2008 CX-9 Sport fwd from my parents in 2012. They bought it new in 2008. When I got it,it was hardly driven sitting on roughly 11,000 miles....fast forward to 2024. I now have 334,000 glorious miles. Now the twist....I am still running with the ORIGINAL Water Pump!! The 3.7 has been bulletproof for me and have only had to do the master cylinder, brake booster, and the fuel pump...aside from regular maintenance.
I also am running a custom exhaust setup by removing the resonator underneath and replaced with a Flowmonster (moved more towards the rear) and removed both rear mufflers.
I love my CX-9 and have always though the 1st generation CX-9 gets a bad rap. I am here to say, I think it's an amazing vehicle!

 

[Maxmodem]

Congrats! You've definitely gotten your moneys worth out of that car. I don't know if I've ever seen one with that kind of mileage. I've got just over 200k on my 2009 and have been wondering just how far the engine and transmission can go.
I agree that these are great vehicles overall. I've also wondered just how common the water pump failures are as of course you only hear from the people that have had them fail.
Have you had to do much suspension work on it?

 

[Ohiopuck40]

I have replaced the rear shocks, upper control arms and sway links. Also replaced the rear wheel bearings as well.
Forgot to mention in the post, I had to replace the starter as well.

I got a couple of quotes on the water pump/timing chain job... one with replacing the Alternator (still on the original) and the other quote was with a Mellings high volume oil pump. Both were over $3200. I have done the overwhelming majority of work on this car, but the wp/tb job is a bit out of my overall scope.

 

[Maxmodem]

That makes sense. I was wondering how that suspension was holding up. Still very impressive. It is unfortunate the water pump job is so expensive. I've heard that you can get away with not removing the engine to do it but the whole job still just seemed way beyond me as well.

 

[Ohiopuck40]

Yea, you can do it without removing it,but it's just not a job I can tackle in my garage,and then if I need bailed out, I don't really have any backup.
I was really trying to gameplan fixing it,but wonder what else could possibly faulter once things start to get taken apart.
I think I'll just ride it out til something happens,and figure it out based on how bad it is.....catch the leak and fix wp/tc...death wobble ruins engine and just find a newer ride.
The 3.7 doesn't scare me off like it does others and I wouldn't hesitate to get something with it,I'd just be a little more proactive since it will be a used vehicle and not all my miles.