Water pump Gates or OEM Volkswagen

Maintenance is king on these cars. They also need to be driven hard every blue moon as well. I\u2019ve been is38 stage 2 since 42k. Currently at 173k with no issues outside of the standard waterpump which was replaced at 125k.

My 2019 is at 110k. Other than maintenance items like tires, oil, spark plugs ect, the one thing I had to fix was the water pump at 97k. It's been flawless otherwise.

I drive my 2017 everyday to work and just hitting 95k miles. I'm the only owner and the biggest issue has just been the water pump. It started to leak around 36k but otherwise had been sold.

The water pumps leak. It's not an if, it is a when, and there is no upgraded part or aftermarket part available that will solve the issue going forward.

If you're already in there at 101k, replace the water pump and thermostat. That's the only thing that's gone bad on mine 'prematurely', at 85k miles.

I had a 2012 VW CC EA888 that went through 3 water pumps in 10K miles. The latter two covered under the 1st’s repair warranty. The repair shop on the third one went with a non-OEM metal water pump instead of the OEM plastic variety. I paid the difference which was I think about $80 and that pump held.

I also had the Gates pump leak within 6 months. The input shaft seal was leaking. Gates used to be a great brand but these pumps are garbage.

I’ve gone through about 3 water pumps all within 10-30k kilometres and each time it’s something leaking other than the gaskets. Either the freeze plug starts to leak or the actual water pump does. Luckily i bought it through napa and they’ve been giving me new ones under warranty but the job takes about 4 hours and each time i have to buy new coolant which is starting to get expensive. The cheapest OEM pump i’ve found from mopar was 1000cad which in itself is crazy because the napa/gates are about $170

Only thing that ever went wrong with it in 5 years of ownership was the water pump

The only thing that I have resented paying for are water pumps which appear to need frequent changing. My comments all apply to UK models.