VR6 water pump

[GIXXERUK 0]

my water pump died last week , the bearing on the impeller collapsed which also acts as a seal, so it was a refill and limp it home

i priced a pump from gsf which was £30 , replacement pumps have a metal impeller unlike the original which was plastic , whether this caused the early demise of mine at only 170,000 miles i'm unsure :lol:

 

anyhoo i always price up the work i'm doing ,mainly because sometimes it isnt worth it for what the garage may charge, i rang my local vw specialist and they wanted £200 !!! :cry: he said he had done one before and its a massive job :x

 

dont believe the hype !! it took me approx 2 hours and it wasnt difficult at all , so all i'm saying is have a go 8)

 

new water pump and fresh G12 plus , no special tools required , just a trolley jack and the usual spanners and allen keys

[Timo. 0]

I found the bolts on the pulley for the water pump, especially one of them, a big problem to get off.

 

Otherwise its quite an easy but fiddely job. Really need to jack the engine up high to get into it!

 

T.

[dinkus 10]

Hmm, must be the season for it cos my pump is making a lovely squeaky/whiney noise :(

 

If it took you 2hrs to do, then surely a VW specialist can do it in a similar time.

 

Not sure if I should risk the 1000+mile trip round Germany with a gammy waterpump or not, because I haven't got any time at all to change it.

 

(FYI the VAG list price is £36+VAT).

[adamukcorrado 0]

could a leaky water pump be causing steam/ smoke issues?? (see other thread) it's the only part of my cooling system that isn't brand new.

[Supercharged 2]

You sure it's the pump Dom?

 

Yeah, I bought one for a mate a couple of months ago - was £28 inc vat (with a discount) plus £15 surcharge from VAG but this one had a plastic impeller...

 

Seems to be the same with the 4cyl pumps, the GSF ones have a metal impeller and the VAG ones are plastic - not sure which is better tho but i'd rather stick with OE.

[dinkus 10]

Yeah, after having seen the cackness of some GSF stuff before (and my tasty VAG discount ;) ) I'll be getting a VAG one.

 

It's definitely the pump though - I thought it was the belt tensioner pulley bearing, but when I whipped it off to change it at the weekend it was silky smooth.

 

I gave the rest of the pulleys a spin and they were all fine apart from the water pump which is really stiff and makes grindy noises (I assume it's the water pump - it's bolted into the block and has a smooth pulley on it).

 

 

Edit: Any part of the coolant system that's leaking could be causing steam - the best way to find out is to get your head in the engine bay with the engine running and see where the steam is coming from...

[GIXXERUK 0]

my pump was noisy for about 12 months :-) , not a grinding sound ,more of a swishy sound :-)

 

if i had known the vag part was that price i probably would have gone OE

 

oh well, if the pump is leaking (vary degrees obviously)slightly you will probably feel a fine mist being sprayed up by the belt, any leakage at the left hand side of the engine is almost certainly due to the pump because nothing else carries coolant around there , unless its projectile leakage :-)

 

all in all i was daunted by the job but its really a diy job , especially if you have done your engine mounts ;-)

[Scruffythefirst 0]

Not sure if I should risk the 1000+mile trip round Germany with a gammy waterpump or not, because I haven't got any time at all to change it.

 

 

I Suppose as its not toooo massive a job, I could be persuaded with the right incentives :D

[2cc 0]

for a man of your calibre should have it done in an hour m8, lol