Tdi Water Pump Replacement.

[Neils TDi again]

Having had the temperature fault of high temp on high loads and normal on running round the town i decided it was time to bite the bullet and change the water pump.

 

First order new pump, alternator belt, thermostat and cam belt. ( i would never change the water pump without changing both belts but in particular the Cam belt as it is the driver of the pump.

 

Second make sure you have the right pump and belts ( europarts managed to get at least the pump wrong).

 

This process is my own and it may or may not be acceptable to others but I did it and it may help others.

 

First jack up the car and remove the undershield. and the offside wheel.

Remove the Plastic cover and foam sound deadening material from the top of the engine.

Remove the Air filter box complete with MAF by disconnecting the main air pipe from the box and removeing the allen capscrew that secures the air box to the body.

Using a suitable protection material (i used a wooden blockwrapped in lots of cloth) and a jack support the engine from underneath (protection cos i jacked against the sump, not recommended but what i did).

Undo the three 16mm bolts that secure the offside engine mount to the engine.

Undo the two 16mm nuts that secure the mounting bracket to the engine mount on the body.

Using a torx driver remove the engine mounting from the body.

Using a ring spanner loosen the two 16mm bolts that hold the top of the engine mounting to the engine, then undo the three 13mm bolt that fit it to the engine mounting post.

Using a 17mm open ended spanner release the tension on the alternator belt and remove the belt from the alternator pulley. A five mm drill can be used to lock the tensioner in the released position if you need this when fitting it back together. It passes through the lug and through the main tensioner bracket.

Using a 13mm socket remove the alternator belt tensioner assembly.

Lower the engine sufficient to be able to see the crack shaft pulley from the wheel arch area, remove the 13mm bolt that secures the power steering pipe to the engine mounting.

Slacken the last 16mm bolt that secures the engine mounting plate to the bottom of the engine.

Remove the plastic cover disc from the main crankshaft pulley.

Remove the four capscrews that secure the pulley to the crank, and remove the pulley. The pulley has five holes as there is a location spigot on the face of the bottom cam belt pulley.

Remove the four 10mm screws which secure the bottom cam belt cover and remove the cover.

Lift the engine back and remove the two 16mm bolts that secure the engine mounting plate and then remove the central mounting post which will be loose when the 16mm bolt is removed.

Remove the engine mounting plate.

Unclip the top cam belt cover a clip is on the front and rear of the cover.

remove the remain central belt cover from the engine.

Before removing the cam belt the postion of both the crank shaft and the cam shaft should be locked. Ideally use a locking kit for the crank and cam or alternatively note the position of the lower pulley and cam pulley so that when refitting and tensioning the belt the pulleys must remain in the correct position.

I marked the lower pulley with a mark of white paint, and set the cam belt pulley to align one of the lugs on the back plate of the cam shaft pulley with the edge of the rocker cover.

Slacken the adjuster and remove the timing belt.

Remove the three 10mm bolts from the water pump housing all that are within the area covered by the cam belt cover.

Gently prise the water pump out as there is an Oring on the pump to seal the water system.

remove the pump.

Reftting is the reverse of the removal but great care must be taken to align the pulleys on the cam belt when refitting the new belt and ensure you use a torque wrench when refitting all the parts.

 

If you have had this temperature problem you may want to replace the thermostat at the same time and i would do this as a matter of course.

To do this remove the two bolts that secure the alternator in place, then remove the two 10mm screws that retain the thermostat housing which is behind the alternator and connects the main radiator hose to the engine, it has the thermostat inside the palstic hosuing. Replace the oring at the same time if you change the thermostat.

 

To aid fitting the cam belt I removed the additonal idler wheel until the belt was fitted on the main pulleys and allowed the water pump to be loose only tightening the pump and idler when the belt was on.

 

I would like to add the photos of the job but I did it by the light of an LED wander lamp as I was forced to do it at night in the rain....

 

Once a level of confidence has been achived this can be done in under two hours, I ended up doing it twice as I said I intially had the wrong pump but it wasnt evident until I had removed the pump on the first attempt. First time i did this it took about four hours on the second night knowing where all the bolts were and the sequence of removal I did it in about 1 hour 40 minutes.

 

Hope this gives some other a bit more confidence to have a go.