Water pump Gates or GRAF

In my case the leaking was from the plastic water pump housing which is a common fault for this engine. I replaced the plastic water pump with GRAF PA1359, which is metal housing instead of the OEM plastic one.

I've run the plastic pump on 2 different cars for over 100k no issue, in fact I only changed one because the thermostat went bad and the water pump's reputation. I do have the metal Graf pump now, I like it so far.

Just buy the wole WP+ housing as an assembly. Who cares if it's OEM. I install Gates WP/Timing belt kits on many other cars and they are excellent. Better than OEM.

Gates is the brand everyone get and refers to for the water pump. Good quality and cheap enough. If you can't get gates. There are two main impeller designs. Cast and sheet metal tabs. Supposedly the cast impeller design performs better. So if you're ordering from a generic parts store, make sure it's the cast impeller design (but the sheet metal design works just fine).

I got the graf as well, def better than what the previous owner used

Water pumps, I tend to stick with OEM now. Gates used to be great but has gone down hill imo.

I bought a Gates water pump off Amazon thinking I could go with a name I trust. Impeller grenaded after 5 months and less than 6k driven.

Installed this GATES water pump 5k miles ago…. Pully seems wobbly as fuck, safe to assume it’s already going out? gonna have to find a better brand

Yeah... That Graf pump did not work out... Had to remove Graf pump and get the proper pump from local VW dealer.

I had a Graf pump as well and it blew up less than a year later, literally the shaft blew off while I was in traffic.