The Importance of Replacing Outboard Impellers

When it comes to essential outboard maintenance, one simple little piece of plastic makes a world of difference for your engine and that is the water pump impeller with popular and reputable brands such as SPX / Johnson Pump, Sierra, Sherwood, Volvo Penta, Jabsco and more.

It is absolutely critical to stay away from aftermarket brands of impellers that don't come with warranty! Reason being there is a lot of low cost imports in the market that are made of low cost materials causing them to fail fast and sudden which can have catastrophic consequences for your engine.

So if you have a Mercury, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Evinrude, Volvo, Yanmar, Tohatsu or any other brand of engine requiring a impeller replacement we can help!

Replacing the impeller ensures that your Outboard Motor cools properly, protecting the engine from overheating and severe, costly damage.  The impeller is a small rotating component with plastic blades.  As it rotates within the water pump housing, the blades push cold water into and through the outboard's cooling system

The rubber blades of an impeller have a limited lifespan and are prone to cracking or breaking over time.  When this happens, the impeller no longer sends enough (or any) cold water through the cooling system, causing the motor to overheat. When an outboard overheats, the best-case scenario is the motor will stop running, while the worst-case scenario is the heat gets so extreme that a piston in the engine seizes.

If you replace the impeller atleast every 200 hours of use, you'll never have to worry about it failing or the damage that comes with it. Many outboard owners prefer to replace their impellers once a year regardless of the number of hours put on the motor. It's a cheap easy fix, so why not? We agree!

Replacing an Impeller: So what else should you do at the same time?

As we already covered, replacing the water pump impeller is an essential part of basic outboard maintenance, and doesn’t take much time or money to get done. 

While fitting a new impeller, take advantage the opportunity to inspect the driveshaft and shift shaft oil seals and replace them too if necessary. Whenever you’re ready to buy a new impeller for your outboard’s water pump, keep All Marine Spares in mind as we have the largest selection of high quality impellers in Australia at fantastic prices with same-day shipping on all orders.