Failed water pump

FYI, the water pump on my 2015 Golf TDI with 27K miles failed on Christmas day. (~170mi from home, in the evening, just as the cold snap hit, with the wife and dogs. Yeah that was "fun" getting home). The only overt indicators I had was that the reservoir needed topped off about once a year each summer. When the pump failed, coolant poured out almost as fast as I poured it in.

The repair was under warranty but it took the dealer a week to fix it mostly because they had to wait a few days for the part. Only minor grumbling from the service manager about the FrostHeater being installed. I did not see the old part and didnt have time to talk to the mechanic so I dont have more details on exactly what happened.

My theory is that the original pump was slowly machining itself. This is mostly because of how abruptly it went and because the engine now sounds different when its really cold out (single digits or lower). Namely there used to be a little whining noise which I couldnt pin down because it would disappear the moment the engine got some heat.

stephen

Mine just went out today at 24k miles. Had been getting small coolant smells when pulling into the garage for the last couple months but couldnt find it, low coolant light came on at work today and it is a pretty bad leak. Dropping it off tonight after they told me they could do a 1-2 day turnaround on it after verifying parts are in stock, need it by thursday for a 1000 mile round trip snowboarding weekend....

Sad Panda said:

Mine just went out today at 24k miles. Had been getting small coolant smells when pulling into the garage for the last couple months but couldnt find it, low coolant light came on at work today and it is a pretty bad leak. Dropping it off tonight after they told me they could do a 1-2 day turnaround on it after verifying parts are in stock, need it by thursday for a 1000 mile round trip snowboarding weekend....

Click to expand...

Request a loaner man. I had heater core and brakes done under warranty and got loaner both times. Alltrack the first time and I took a new GTI the second time. You shouldn't be out of a ride during warranty work.

Yikes. Two down under 30k miles. Hope it’s not a model year trend.

I too have concerns about how a dealer might try to scoff at the FrostHeater on coolant system related warranty work. Glad they didn’t deny the claim at least.

Its starting to look like it might be. Im on a MK7 FaceBook group for Golf/GTI/R and there were a number of those who also reported this problem.

The EA888 gas engine uses a different type water pump than the EA288 diesel. There have been several reports of failures just on TDIclub, myself included. Mine was replaced before I purchased used at 17k miles (it was manufactured in '14). My previous '15 GSW is approaching 60k (manufactured in '15) miles on it by now with no failure though. Very well could be superceded part number. The pump is run by the backside of the timing belt, and is very easy to replace with correct locking tools.