Leaking water pump - replace?

[onceover]

Last timing belt service was around 30k ago, doing a bunch of service on the car and went to check the timing belt. Low and behold the stupid water pump has been leaking. Doesn't look like much, but is this one of those better safe than sorry moments? Should I replace it while I have the front clip apart?

Tired of sinking money into this car at this point. What was supposed to be a clutch job now has me close to 2k in the hole.

[jayiszraw]

It looks like g12 did what g12 does and sealed up. But maybe pull it out and replace the gasket?

[onceover]

Excellent plan. Grabbed an o-ring today.

[old guy]

If you are going to pull the water pump to replace the "O" ring I would recommend going ahead and replacing the pump. It isn't all that expensive. I had two pumps in a row fail at 50k miles. The first one was leaking through the pump seal (not the "O"ring) and the second one sounded like a rock tumbler when I took it out. Both Geba pumps. Never again.

I would look at it as cheap insurance since you are already in there.

[onceover]

I considered getting a new one, but pulled out the old one and it looked good minus the o-ring that pretty much fell apart as I took it off. I believe this one is a hepu pump.

I checked my service records and it was last done 22k mi ago, so it's actually newer than I thought.

[old guy]

That's what I have now. At 22k I would just put it back in with a new O ring .