Water Pump!

[ade]

Well just finished after 2 days of sweat, blood (skinned knuckles) and tears (wrong belt) doing my water pump. Didnt think even the Germans could design a lump in which you need to remove the cambelt, tensioner and a bottom end pulley, just to change it. Long story cut short it was a case of airbox off, power steering pump off, air con pump off, alternator off, cambelt cover off. Oh no they only put the enging mounting bolts through the bloody cover. Off to finds a jack..... anyway enging mounting array off, cover off, cambelt carefully marked and tensioner removed then cambelt off. still cant get to the bloody thing. bottom end pulley off, cup of tea time.

 

Right lets try and get the aux bracet off that covers the water pump. Ha ha, they have put a bolt right underneath where the pump timing pulley is. Fuc* messing around with that. Another cuppa time.

 

manage just to split the two halfs of the new water pump and retain the gasket. Did that on the old one, humm should have put a bucket there, 3 ltrs of coolant covers all me tools.

 

Anyway put new pump half on then a simple "haynes manual referance" rebuild.

 

filled with coolant and crossed every finger, toe and limb when i turned the key.....whooo hooo it didnt go band or grind.

 

Next time you have a water pump noise/ replacement. Get someone else to do it.

[mumof4]

Ahh..but how did you feel when you turned the key and she worked??apart from bloody relieved.LOL.

 

Well done to you ade.Hope you feel the satisfaction of a job well done after all that!

[big_kev]

Next time you have a water pump noise/ replacement. Get someone else to do it.

 

Don't suppose you fancy doing mine then.. :lol:

[NikpV]

might as well have done the cambelt at the same time :lol:

[Dave-G]

Well done - did ya fit a new timing belt too?

 

Apparantly ford recomend that, and indeed have just done my pump under warranty this week... yup - with a new belt, and it was coming up for a new belt anyway :lol:

[ade]

didn't fit a new cam belt as it only had one less than 4000 miles ago. should i have changed it?

[Seatdriver]

My 1.9 tdi 03 Sharan went into the local main VW agents for its cambelt service, whilst this was being done I was advised the water pump had failed.

 

Anyway 1 New cambelt + tensioners 1 new water pump coolent drained and replaced (yes they didnt put the old back) perfect service,100% satisfied and wow much quieter in the cabin.

 

 

I would always give this very important job to the main agent (if you have one you can trust) as all VW work is guranteed for two years, god eh and worth every pound.

 

Just for interest how much does it cost for parts if you do it yourself and how much have people paid to get the job done at a non main agent?

[dipsomaniac]

water pump is

[Seatdriver]

Good point about DIY but I am very lucky to have an excellent VW main agent who pick up/drop off the car and are 100% honest with all their work. I wouldnt want to work on my Sharan although I am pretty experienced DIY on cars, always had the view with cam belts that let the main agent carry out the work and if they make a mess of it its their problem not mine.

 

I have always believed that genuine parts are better quality than copy parts, is this true as the genuine parts only appear to be about a 50% dearer.

[dipsomaniac]

it is difficult to access a lot of the engine components on these cars as there is not much room to work in. once you have removed the airbox and a few panels it becomes a bit easier.

 

i don't know if genuine parts are better - dealer like you to think they are. you will probably find that most of the pattern parts are made by the same companies that make the branded parts. i am in the process of replacing my radiator - the main dealer wants

[big_kev]

I think with Branded parts you have to look at the type of part in question.

 

Things like Radiators, water pumps and general mechanical components that you wouldn't really class as consumables are probably not in great demand and are almost certainly only made by one, or at most a few, specialised companies.

In this case "genuine" parts is just a way of charging more for the same identical component and a the cheapest available will most likely be the best buy.

 

 

Parts that you could class as consumables, Tyres, Exhausts, Brake pads etc are in much higher demand and the "inferior copies" are doubtless out there as there is a decent market for them.

A typical example of this would be where you have some top branded items of excellent quality that are also sold ( identical items ) under various less well known names at a cut price.

Alongside this you will have "budget" types of lower quality and also more worryingly "copies" of a sub-standard (if not dangerous) nature.

In this case the cheapest available may not be the best buy...but it could be...you pays your money and take your chance !

 

 

If its a safety component, ( wheels, steering, suspension or braking ) then it may be prudent to use a known good make.

[dipsomaniac]

it is virtually impossible to know the quality of the part and where they are sourced - especially if someone else is supplying and fitting the part.

 

its all about the materials used and quality of the engineering - the only way to tell which of two manufactures is better is by buying both products and testing them. you will never know if you only buy dunlops.

 

the problem with a 'brand' is that all that is usually known about the brand is that the company is more effective at advertising.

[jkspoff]

We may well slag off the main dealers for being over priced, but in my experience the original manufacturers parts have been superior to those of an independant brand. I still wouldn't use a main dealer though !