Owner reviews for water pump

my water pump went at 80K (KM)'s (got it towed to georgetown VW) and when i got my OEM replacement it was metal... compared to the plastic one they took out... Saw it touched it... (they showed me the old plastic one) i thought it was weird and they said in 2002 and after they have metal water pumps... before that it was "plastic"? anyways its in and i have a metal one... and i got it from a VW dealer... OEM part...

I'll confirm that too (don't remember if it was iron or steel though). But I was highly skeptical too until I saw it w/ my own eyes. But definitely metal, made by German aftermarket manufacturer Hepu, AND it was cheaper than the OEM one w/ plastic impeller. Also that description on ECS's website must have changed recently because when I bought it, there was no mention of the impeller being metal. But Tom@ECS came on here and confirmed it. Still begs the question though if a metal impeller is really any better than the plastibake one if you change it out w/ the belt at 50-60K. I wouldn't hesitate to switch back to the plastic one if that's what I had on hand.

I got my Hepu pump (all metal) for a little over $40 from Euclid Foreign Auto in Euclid Ohio.

Not true. The maintenance schedule for the belt is 105,000 miles. Many of the pumps with plastic impellers fail before that. The plastic composite seems to age and become brittle after 70k or 80k miles--some sooner and some later. But they do fail. This is what happens: