Pump Or Seal?

I know it's a general consensus that we change the oil pump at 120k but I'm wondering if anyone would ever just change the seal?

I work at an autoparts store and any time I mention changing the oil pump on my car they look at me like I'm a retard and ask why I wouldn't just change the seal...of course, most of the people I deal with are rednecks workin on american stuff 350s 454s deisels n what not...

Just thought I'd ask opinions and thoughts on this, seems like a legit question, most cars oil pumps don't need much maintenance other than a seal replaced, but most cars aren't as tempermental, high horse, or driven hard like a lot of us. Spun bearings or other catastrophe would definitely justify a new pump for sure

A major reason to change these oil pumps is gear fatigue not leaking. The gears give/wear out. Sometimes disasterously. I've seen 2 cars now, one even a 97 with only 50k on the clock totally shatter their oil pump gears. A main cause is over-revving. Anyway - a big reason is to change the gears. It is also in the service manual how to change them out vs. replace the whole pump. Most people just replace the whole pump though. And there are also many owners with original oil pump pushing over 200k w/o problems. Just depends on the car's history and how it was treated IMO.

As for most cars this or that; many cars have certain things that fail more than other cars or need special attention to. The 3S is no different in that respect. No one has yet designed a car that couldn't use some changes mechanically in hindsight :)

That was kind of my thoughts and opinion too, our cars are more of a performance car, high performance always equals higher maintenance and a lot of people around here aren't very familiar with these cars, or think they're not as high performance and fast as their mopar V8s so I get a lot of flack