Water pump GRAF or GMB

Graf has been pretty good to me.

I have the Graf brand on mine, replaced mine at around 120k miles. It’s aluminum and has aluminum impeller also.

I installed one on me 325i 12k miles ago, no issues so far, it was part of the FCP euro water pump kits

6 months and 4000km on mine. Only found out a while after Graf has a bad rep. But no problems with mine yet.

When you do get a pump, buy the entire pump (front and back hemisphere) (like a GRAF brand). If this engine has been moving grit, the rear half of the water pump will be worn more open and not be able to move fluid efficiently.

Me and various others I know have used GMB water pumps before with no issues.

I checked the old water pump and took it out by removing the front plate of the engine... The old water pump moves fine but it does make a squeaking noise and is quite old however it does move.

Well, all of these seals are not created equal in my experience. I have had a bad experience with some seal kits that had combustion chamber seals that were really hard so they didn't stretch evenly over the injector or compress properly with the proper tools. Luckily I was able to source some of the correct ones from a tech friend the same day, so I was able to get my car going. You really need to make sure that you have the right ones, as you have to destroy the old ones to remove them, and if the new ones aren't right, you are screwed. I personally won't recommend anything other than factory parts, as too many times I have tried something else, like Graf aluminum water pumps (two failures-100%, within six months) and gotten burned.

graf has failed on me twice prematurely

I just had to deal with a Graf pump failing at 6000 miles on my CRUA. Everything is low quality trash now.