Water pump Saleri or GRAF

I have over 200k on the Graf I installed at 120k miles.

I have a Graf and I haven't had any problems.

I have 27K miles on a Graf with no complaints.

I installed the aluminum pump (Graf) on the wife's Tiguan and it has worked great since. Have put 40K miles on the metal pump and no issues.

Saleri is what I put in. No issues about a year in.

GRAF makes this particular pump without the magnetic impeller, and it’s the best option.

As for the aluminum one made by/marketed as Graf, there are a few issues in my experience. First, the rubber gasket from the housing to the block is known to fail by tearing where the link in the gasket between the two passage connect. I think this is because the gasket does not precise fit in the channel for the seal machined into the housing. On the one that just put on an engine I just put in my '12 Tiguan, I cut that link out, effectively making two seals and relieving the tension in the seal. Next, the O ring seal supplied for the temp sensor is known to disintegrate, so I got a factory seal. Last, if your engine has a late water pump currently with the clip that holds in the temp sensor, the two mounting bolts to the block at the sensor will be too short for the aluminum pump housing, so you need to get the bolts for an early water pump. Honestly, as long as you don't have any oil leaks, the latest factory water pump is fine. I generally don't trust aftermarket water pumps, as I have had too many fail over the years (not on these engines, just in general). I used this Graf aluminum water pump as a test. The quality seems good, but time will tell.

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

I bought a saleri water pump with plans to install it myself. When I realized the job would be a little harder than I expected I decided to take it to a shop to install. They just sent me a report saying that they installed the saleri and it “was not within the tolerances for the spec” and it began “leaking immediately”. There solution is to order me a graf water pump which they describe as a “reputable” brand which insinuates that I brought them a water pump worse than a graf which from my research doesn’t seem to be true. I’m a little frustrated as they are billing me $400 extra to buy and install the Graf when I thought the saleri one should’ve been fine.

Yeah... That Graf pump did not work out... Had to remove Graf pump and get the proper pump from local VW dealer.