Water pump Gates or OEM Volkswagen

Replace it when it looks worn. Water pump failing would normally just cause the car to over heat so no need to change it as a maintenance item. I’ve also owned the previous ea888.3 in my Gli and I had 100k with no issues what so ever.

mango_springroll said: I got the DD version from a local dealership that sells parts on Ebay, installed no issue.

id buy the whole water pump, because you dont know exactly where the leak is. i did mine over the winter and in my case one of the inlets cracked badly. I bought this part: 06J-121-026-BG, and even though it had a sensor on one of the coolant outlet pipes, I didnt plug anything in it and its been fine.

Only main issues I saw were leaking vacuum pumps, valve cover gaskets, pcv leaks (whole valve cover assembly) and water pump sepage.

Once I removed the thermostat, I felt in the port and although the impeller felt ok, it spun freely; not smooth like a bearing but rough like it was dragging. Since I was able to freely turn the impeller through the thermostat hole, I have to assume my water pump is failed.

I have to literally remove the nose of my B5 1.8T Passat to get at my water pump. Second one in 110,000 miles.

I’m on #4, but luckily all were replaced under warranty. Most recent was in 2019 when supposedly they had finally found and fixed the issue (not sure what ended up being the cause)

One of them hadn’t even failed yet, and they replaced it under recall since a new revision had come out

My mk6 went through THREE water pumps. All covered under warranty because a class action lawsuit forced VW to extend the coverage period several years, but still a pain in the ass. What's frustrating is that VW kept replacing them with the same faulty pump instead of addressing the problem and redesigning it.

I have a MK6 and a MK7 and they both suffer the same crappy design. Making a water pump primarily out of plastic is just a bad idea. My MK6 is on at least it's third water pump at a little over 100k miles.

Water pump failed on the gates timing belt kit and engine shredded only 16000 miles on it