Water pump Pierburg or OEM Volkswagen

21 atlas with 120k here. No major issues. Just regular maintenance stuff. Replaced a leaky water pump with is a normal thing.

Changed it at 9 years / 93k. Belt was still fine but the water pump started to leak so did the timing belt job at the same time. Also upgraded the water pump with one with a metal impeller

I went with the all metal Pierberg pump for my E90, with an N54. The problem with the plastic is that it gets brittle due to thermo cycling, and that is s problem for all of the plastic parts in these engines (valve cover, radiator, expansion tank etc etc). I probably only have 10-15k km on this one so far, but no problems to report and some very long driving days.

Great if taken care of!

I have a 2016 Golf 5MT, 160k mi now. It's been tuned for 120k and only major issue I've had is the original water pump went out last spring at approx. 140k.

I replaced my water pump last weekend with a new pierburg pump from ecs tuning, everything went smoothly, no leaks, etc.

There was only a slight oil residue on top of old water pump and none inside or near the pumps gaskets. No cracks in the plastic housing were found anywhere on the old pump.

As a mechanic who used to work on these cars daily, it really depends if you're willing to fork out the amount that's due every couple of years, the water pumps on vw/Audi/ Porsche and mercs are always prone to fail within a couple of years even if you go aftermarket.

my 2018 (build date Aug 2018) had no head gasket issues, although the water pump leaked prematurely.

My water pump broke the first time 23k miles ago. Another one just went out on me. I’m 1 month past the 8 years and only at 72k miles.

It’s a Vw water pump. It would have failed shortly after install anyway