Water pump made it to 98K miles

[jokila]

....and then it decided to lock up. I drove it for about 10 minutes with this whirring noise as I limped home. I am glad I didn't drive it further. It could have been a disaster. I should have shut the thing down and had it towed.

I found the needle roller bearings down below the crank pulley and the water pump shaft frozen in the pump. 323K miles.

 

[Mad_Max]

This is one close call.
Max

 

[gallaj01]

Strange...I just posted over in the MKIV-A4 Discussion board about my water pump failing at ~98K miles, as well.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=419754

 

[jokila]

Strange...I just posted over in the MKIV-A4 Discussion board about my water pump failing at ~98K miles, as well.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=419754

Sounds like the same thing that happened to me. I saw the coolant light come on and i knew the water level was dropping. At first I thought it was the clutch because I felt in the shifter, but I figured it was the water pump not too long after.

I am not sure of the brand of water pump that was installed. I get the kits from idparts.com and they are from the same source as OEM. I think HEPU is just what I replaced it with.

 

[aircooledkid]

323K miles and that engine looks clean!

 

[runonbeer]

I'm at 320K on my car and a little over 100K on this TB kit. Guess I should go have a peak at it. Maybe I need to call runonbeer and get on his calendar. He's booked a month out right now...

 

[burpod]

kind of a long time to leave a water pump in....

 

[turbocharged798]

This is why a recommend a 80K TB interval for all MK4s. Cost wise you aren't saving much going the extra 2K and the risk gets higher.

 

[jetta 97]

This is why a recommend a 80K TB interval for all MK4s. Cost wise you aren't saving much going the extra 2K and the risk gets higher.

100 % agree.
Not just ALH, I would say for all TDI.

 

[jokila]

kind of a long time to leave a water pump in....

My first TB change happened at 125k! The next one at 225K. No water pump issues. The parts are supposed to be rated to last 100K or so I thought.

 

[jokila]

I'm at 320K on my car and a little over 100K on this TB kit. Guess I should go have a peak at it. Maybe I need to call runonbeer and get on his calendar. He's booked a month out right now...

Ever hear of the saying "The cobbler's children have no shoes"?

Well, here's an idea, send me your Houston customers if you want. My schedule is fairly open for that kind of work.

 

[KAT90]

I had a water pump let go at 76K, bearing went lost all the coolant. Car was toed back to the shop & that was with the 100K kit.

 

[runonbeer]

Ever hear of the saying "The cobbler's children have no shoes"?
Well, here's an idea, send me your Houston customers if you want. My schedule is fairly open for that kind of work.

I just looked at my belt yesterday. Looks great. Not worried.

It's not really the workload but the major life changes that are sapping all my time. Finally got the chickens installed in their new coop after two weekends converting a dilapidated plays cape into a coop. The heat is really taking it out of me too. I'm not as fast as I was when I was 26.

 

[jettawreck]

You are extremely fortunate that it stayed in time, in fact I'm not sure how it did.

 

[jasonTDI]

Personally I have seen just hand full of them fail in 3500 plus timing belts. My customers are in a HARSH environment. YMMV but unless you hear it swishing constantly there is no reason to change early.

 

[AndyBees]

I've seen plenty of them go well past 100k miles with no problems. Some would have a little dried pink stuff about...

The OE WP on my Jetta went 167k miles! I recently did a TB job on an '03 with 149k miles on the original stuff... one owner who admitted nothing had ever been changed! The WP felt just fine and no leaks.

So, I suppose there were are quite a few WPs make on Monday morning that don't pass muster!