I ended up keeping the gates kit, I've put about 8k miles on it so far.
I wasnt planning on changing mine either when i bought my Audi TT and it had 61k miles on it and was just going to change belt and then at 100k the pump+belt.. when i took the pump off to see if it was plastic impeller style the impeller wasnt even attached to the pump.. it was just free spinning on the shaft.. i to this day have no clue how the car never overheated before that day.. cause i drove the car 2600 miles in 9 days prior to doing the timing belt. ill dig up the link but i posted a link on here of a movie how i could flick the impeller and it spun like 6 revolutions on the shaft without the actual shaft moving...
Once I removed the thermostat, I felt in the port and although the impeller felt ok, it spun freely; not smooth like a bearing but rough like it was dragging. Since I was able to freely turn the impeller through the thermostat hole, I have to assume my water pump is failed.
My waterpump developed a crack 3 weeks ago and I started to leak coolant. Car had 20,000km on it. Had it all replaced under warranty. Was open about the mods on the car as well and dealership didn't give me any issues.
Gates is crap. Bought their water pump and it failed less than a year and leaked the whole time.
Mine broke in less than 500 miles and their replacement broke too (which I paid for till I returned them the faulty one back) in less than 500 miles on an Audi A1. Now they have my money for 2 water pumps and I paid for labour costs of replacing twice, and waiting for a refund decision for more than a month. AVOID!!!
Don’t use a Gates kit or if you do purchase the Gates kit without the water pump and get a different brand water pump. Gates water pumps have an enormously high failure rate in the last several years and it sucks to have to do the job twice.
Water pump failed on the gates timing belt kit and engine shredded only 16000 miles on it
Gates water pump failure
I have seen early failure with the Gates water pump and wont use them.
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