If you're worried, replace both the water pump and thermostat. I would use a Mahle, Facet, or Wahler thermostat, and either a Hepu or Graf water pump.
I went with the all metal Pierberg pump for my E90, with an N54. The problem with the plastic is that it gets brittle due to thermo cycling, and that is s problem for all of the plastic parts in these engines (valve cover, radiator, expansion tank etc etc). I probably only have 10-15k km on this one so far, but no problems to report and some very long driving days.
The all metal pierburg water pumps last longer than the plastic ones.
I'd recommend looking at an upgraded Pierburg water pump. None of the plastic bits & will save you from replacing it again in a few years.
Have installed many pierburg Full alum cast pumps as well with good results. The Pierburgs are made in china FYI
I too chose pierburg from fcp. Questionable weather it\u2019s any better than oem. I appreciated the all aluminum housing of the pierburg as it provides one less failure point which is the possibility of the plastic cracking due to an over torqued hose clamp.
It happens. I’ve had maybe 3-4 do this out of probably 300 we’ve changed at the shop. Once was a pierburg but the rest were autozone duralast etc.
I got all aluminum Pierburg water pump to replace (working) VDO water pump. After putting everything back together, bleeding the system, I turned on the car, drove 40 miles with a couple on and off cycles and then shut it off for a couple of hours. I came back, started the car, I got the low coolant level warning, understandable, air escaped the system (I guess I didn't bleed it enough lol). Topped it off, drove 20 miles back home and then heating suddenly stopped working and coolant temp started rising. Went from 95 C to 100, then 105 and that's when I shut the car off, didn't want it to overheat. Ever since then, my pump works intermittently. I had a laptop set up next to me with INPA on today and drove close to the house to have the car ready for emissions (thank God!). After bleeding the system two more times yesterday it seemed like it was fine but while driving today, after maybe 20 minutes of driving, the pump stopped working and would not come back on again. It was like trying, the percentage rose to 30-35% and then back to zero immediately. Temperature went from 90 C to around 110 C rather quick obviously. Then out of nowhere, it started working again for a bit. Got close to the store I was going to, and it stopped working again. I was able to pull into the parking lot as it got to 120 C and got a yellow overheating warning. On my way back home from the store, the pump only started working again maybe 3 minutes from home, had to stop once and then turn off the car and keep rolling most of the way to not let it overheat. Also, there's no heating from the vents until I set it to 28 C but at the same time there's no movement from the pump in INPA.
I find it weird that the water pump went bad since i changed it about a year ago with a Pierburg water pump. Next morning my car started overheating. Tried bleeding the system and the pump wouldn’t engage.
Update. The replacement HEPU water pump is now leaking.. from the freeze plug…
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