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.
I have been running the Graf AL pump for about 10k so not long enough to give a full assessment, but the quality was awesome and very pleased with it.
Graf does make an AL housing pump which I used this last time. Time will tell if it holds up better the the Rein plastic AM one installed in the CC.
Had a better look during weekend and the "substance" in the expansion tank looks and feels like rust particles not oil. It does not feel slick. I'll be replacing the pump with the aluminum Graf unit soon, hoping I'll last more than 100k at least.
I ordered the Graf aluminum water pump kit from ECS Tuning and did the job this past weekend. I'm glad I took the intake manifold off. I did some carbon cleaning while I was in there, I was surprised to see how much build up was in there for a 70K engine. I don't really see how I could have replaced the pump without removing the intake manifold
I went to the dealer and after a long discussion about plastic vs metal impellers (they thought the VW branded pump was metal) a nice gentleman at the dealer ordered me a Graf branded aftermarket pump for $100 Canadian all-in.
I purchase the all aluminum pump made by Graf from FCP euro, they have a lifetime warranty, free shipping and good prices. I removed the manifold to get to the water pump. I had a problem with the cheap thermostat that came with it. It caused my car to run hot.
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.
Okay, so I installed a new aftermarket pump in my MK4 Jetta 2.0 last year. Went with the seemingly highly recommended GRAF metal impeller pump that many forum members across multiple forums seemed to stand behind... 14K miles later and it's leaking. Anyway, after doing some more research, it seems that it's considerably more common for aftermarket metal impeller pumps (especially GRAF, but seemingly all of them from what I can find) to fail prematurely for some reason...
The stock pump failed back in Feb 2010, so i ordered a GRAF pump with metal impeller from ECS Tuning. Purchase was made on 1/27/10, parts got here on 2/03/10, and I installed pump late Feb 2010. Mileage was 127,257 when pump, timing belt, tensioner were done. In the middle of 2010, a loud grinding started at the front passenger side of the engine. I took everything apart and found the water pump with bearing grease or some waxy chunky crap all over the outside of it and on the inside of the timing belt cover like it splattered, and the pump leaking from the shaft. Car now has 135,362 miles on it, so thats complete pump failure within 8,069 miles.
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