Water pump GRAF or Pierburg

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.

we always used Pierburg assemblies with Mahle gaskets/o-rings if needed.

Looks fine to me. I typically install Graf water pumps which are a similar stamped metal design and works just fine.

The BMW original from pierburg last way longer than 60,000 miles, more like 90,000 miles. Plus, as time went on they made them better than before. Getter a new one today will last longer than the original one.

We routinely get cars with 120,000 miles on their first water pump too.

Pierburg water pumps are known to be good for about 60-80k, which is the usual time they fail (they either leak or the electronics inside fail).

I got all aluminum Pierburg water pump to replace (working) VDO water pump. After putting everything back together, bleeding the system, I turned on the car, drove 40 miles with a couple on and off cycles and then shut it off for a couple of hours. I came back, started the car, I got the low coolant level warning, understandable, air escaped the system (I guess I didn't bleed it enough lol). Topped it off, drove 20 miles back home and then heating suddenly stopped working and coolant temp started rising. Went from 95 C to 100, then 105 and that's when I shut the car off, didn't want it to overheat. Ever since then, my pump works intermittently. I had a laptop set up next to me with INPA on today and drove close to the house to have the car ready for emissions (thank God!). After bleeding the system two more times yesterday it seemed like it was fine but while driving today, after maybe 20 minutes of driving, the pump stopped working and would not come back on again. It was like trying, the percentage rose to 30-35% and then back to zero immediately. Temperature went from 90 C to around 110 C rather quick obviously. Then out of nowhere, it started working again for a bit. Got close to the store I was going to, and it stopped working again. I was able to pull into the parking lot as it got to 120 C and got a yellow overheating warning. On my way back home from the store, the pump only started working again maybe 3 minutes from home, had to stop once and then turn off the car and keep rolling most of the way to not let it overheat. Also, there's no heating from the vents until I set it to 28 C but at the same time there's no movement from the pump in INPA.

I find it weird that the water pump went bad since i changed it about a year ago with a Pierburg water pump. Next morning my car started overheating. Tried bleeding the system and the pump wouldn’t engage.

Have had bad luck with graf metal impeller pumps, multiple failures over 2 different cars.