Water pump GRAF or Pierburg

Graf is good.

The Pierburg pump is an all aluminum upgrade. I put one in a couple months ago. It works great, less prone to leaking and I have only ever read/heard good things about it. It is even a few dollars cheaper than the OE VDO pump.

I ended up going with the water pump here: Graf Water Pump . There is no difference in engine performance or fuel economy with the new pump. But it will take longer to warm up, especially in colder weather.

I personally replaced the water pump on my Tiguan with a Graf aluminum pump. The only issue I've had was the rubber o-ring on the temp sensor leaking. I replaced all the rubber seals with Rein branded ones and no more leaks.

Pierburg. It’s literally exactly the same just no BMW logo.

Pierburg is the OEM maker of the BMW water pump. Spending the extra for the BMW is ridiculous when they are 100% the same exact same pump from the same company from the same factory.

I finished the water pump replacement with the Graf Aluminium pump. Nice pump. As per Qmulus recommendation, I replaced the coolant sensor Oring with OEM. While in the process, I replaced the oil filter housing along with a new oring for it.

It happens. I’ve had maybe 3-4 do this out of probably 300 we’ve changed at the shop. Once was a pierburg but the rest were autozone duralast etc.

16,000 Miles (12 months) and now the Graf is leaking. After researching it seems a few bearing failures, a few thermostats, and some sensors out of the box are failing on these Graf pumps.

I just bought one of these Graf aluminum pumps for an engine that I am building, but before installing it I asked around with the VW tech friends I know what their impression of it is. The consensus was "not great". One shop had to warranty two of them because the seal to the block failed, tearing at a T where it connects the two passages.