I put a gates on my 2005 in August. No issues so far.
Graf here. 15k miles/ 2 years, no problems.
I got a metal impeller gates and I’ve been beating on it for five years or more without any hiccups.
I use on my 12v and 24v VR6 engines, Eurowise aluminum thermostat housing and 42DD stainless steel crack pipe. Water pump I use GRAF or Hepu for its metal impeller.
I've also had a Graf I think it was, it did have a metal impeller, which started leaking after 7 yrs.
During COVID, that water pump was on backorder from Ford so I used one from Gates. I guess Gates had a bad batch and 2 of their's failed in the span of less than a year.
what I had problems with is with Graf water pump, that was included as part of FCP euro cooling system kit, water pump seal around the bearing started pouring coolant like a waterfall after only 11k miles, I replaced it with a Stewart pump
The only one to really avoid out of the 5 choices on Rockauto is the Gates, because of the cheap stamped impeller. Personally, I would not go with an aluminum pump body in this application, but that's just my opinion after working on vehicles for a living for 45+ years.
I used a Gates pump the first time and it leaked. I uninstalled it, cleaned everything up, regreased all the seals, and reinstalled it it... still leaked. Turns out the Gates water pumps for the ecodiesel are just garbage.
I have Gates start leaking within 10k of installation.
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If choosing water pump across many manufacturers, check the part ranking. If your choice is down to two brands, the PartReview part comparisons help.
We compare water pump across these categories:
In March 2026 on PartReview, water pump GRAF were overall better than Gates.
In March 2026 on PartReview, water pump GRAF were overall more popular than Gates.
By vote balance, water pump GRAF surpassed Gates:
By number of reviews, water pump GRAF surpassed Gates:
In March 2026, according to PartReview, water pump GRAF led more car-specific ratings than Gates:
GRAF are chosen by owners of cars such as: Volkswagen Jetta, Volkswagen Tiguan, and others.
Water pump Gates have not yet taken leading positions in car-specific ratings. You can help by adding a review and specifying your car.
If this comparison didn’t fully answer your question, there are many others on PartReview.
For example, comparisons of water pump Gates with: OEM Volkswagen, OEM Audi, AISIN, Hepu, Pierburg, OEM FORD, OEM BMW, OEM Toyota, GMB, Saleri.
Also available: comparisons of water pump GRAF with: OEM Volkswagen, OEM Audi, AISIN, Hepu, Pierburg, OEM FORD, OEM BMW, OEM Toyota, GMB, Saleri.
You can also see who is better among other water pump manufacturers: OEM Audi or OEM Volkswagen, GRAF or OEM Volkswagen, AISIN or OEM Volkswagen, Gates or OEM Volkswagen, Hepu or OEM Volkswagen.
