Water pump Gates or OEM Volkswagen

Gates all the way. I have just a basic timing kit and water pump and i auto-x mine in the summer. Haven't had a single little problem so far.

Mine started leaking last night. Took it to the dealership this morning and just got the call that they installed a new water pump under a recall. No charge.

I ended up keeping the gates kit, I've put about 8k miles on it so far.

I had been hearing a hitch-pitched noise from my engine that almost sounded like a vacuum cleaner about 5-10 minutes after engine start up. Took the car into the dealer to find that it was a water pump failure (as I kind of knew from poking around here). It looks like this is a fairly common issue for 2012's unfortunately, but just a heads up for people as this didn't trigger a CEL or anything.

Gates water pump failure

metal impellers definetely can eff up your setup. I had one on my 2.0 jetta. and it completely froze, and caused me to overheat, which killed my headgasket. The engine never fully recovered from that.

I was sitting at an In-n-Out drive-in when the low coolant warning dinged. Drove it the 2 mi home while keeping an eye on temps and popped the hood. The overflow tank was 75% empty and there was an apparent leak. By the end of the hour, it was completely dry. Got it towed to the local dealership and it took a day to diagnose and another day to get my car back. I'm grateful it didn't blow during my little road trip.

I have seen early failure with the Gates water pump and wont use them.

155k miles - water pump leaking again, gaskets in inlet/outlet pipes need new gaskets, put on aftermarket aluminum water pump in hopes to prevent future leaks.

Don't use Gates water pumps.