Water pump GMB or Hepu

Hepu--the bomb,99% reliability,MADE IN GERMANY.

Graf and Hepu make 12v metal impeller pumps, direct fit no mods.

I've used GMB some 10+ years ago. They were made in Japan and came with a lifetime warranty.

Sounds like your water pump is shot. The impeller is spinning on the shaft and not pushing the water. I just had a customer who had this problem. The crazy thing is, I just replaced the pump about 2 years/30K ago with a GMB pump. He had the exact same symptoms as you: car gets hot, but does not overheat, no water through the return line, and fan takes a long time before it turns on.

Any replacement whether it br Graf or Hepu are going to have a metal impeller and be an exact factory replacement. The wheel itself will be identical in shape and circulate the same volume of coolant.

I ordered one from MJM Autohaus, a Hepu unit and its impeller is metal

Metal impeller model is available but can be hard to find (Hepu brand). Recommended interval for changing is 80-100K depending on who you talk to. But many fail earlier and may fail as early as 20k. Change as preventive maintenance.

i bought the dieselgeek timing belt kit which includes the Behr german Thermostat and Hepu water pump. he says that the stock OE style thermostat is better and the reman OE pump (which now uses metal impellors) is better than the hepu.

I put in a GMB in my '02 two years ago, and it's leaking already.

This was a Hepu pump. With far less than 60k miles. I'm thinking the coolant had gotten too old. Can't figure why else the pump would wear so fast. Noise statrted after coolant change, am running an AC delete setup.