Waterpump replacment

[adam976]

Hi all,

My waterpump is leaking and needs to be replaced.

Stupid question: is the thermostat/waterpump one unit or separate?

What should I expect to pay all in at an independent shop? As a rough guide so I know I'm not getting ripped off.

Cheers

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[adam976]

Okay for anyone interested got it replaced at Eurohaus Prestige. They did a great job.

Finished it in half a day and gave me a loan car and complimentary car wash.

Great service.

Adam

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[Hillbilly]

Dont know about indies but VW charged me $1300 to do belt and pump on a Passat Do both at once its cheaper

[Lucas_R]

Dont know about indies but VW charged me $1300 to do belt and pump on a Passat Do both at once its cheaper

Mk6 GTI uses a timing chain, which in theory should never need to be changed, but because its a VAG product - its does need to be changed.

To the OP, as you probably know by now, yes the water pump and thermostat is all built into one unit located under the inlet manifold. A bit of a bastard of a location as access is tight and you really need to have the car on a hoist. The water pump units on the Mk6 GTI's (and other VAG products which use that engine) are known to fail, so to be honest you are probably lucky it has lasted as long as it did.

[adam976]

Car had 73k kms but I only purchased it a month ago.. my luck.

Ended up being $880 inc gst.

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[Lucas_R]

Car had 73k kms but I only purchased it a month ago.. my luck.

Ended up being $880 inc gst.

Bugger - unfortunately this is always a risk with buying a 2nd hand car. Its possible the previous owner knew about it and that was one of the reasons why they sold it.

At least its fixed now.

What year model is your GTI? If its older than 2012 then you may want to put some money aside over the next few months to get the timing chain and tensioner/guides updated. The pre-2012 models had issues with the timing chain stretching, and the tensioner would just fail (with no warning) causing engine failure. VW have now updated the tensioner and chain so it should no longer be an issue once the parts are replaced.

I used to have a Mk6 GTI and mine was a 2010. I had the timing chain issue with my car. I got the car below market value (it was traded in at the dealership where my brother worked at the time) so didnt bother me to spend the money on the work, just annoying that a car that only had 60,000km on it needed all of these parts replaced at my cost on such a new car.

[adam976]

Yes lucky I bought it at a good price from an online auction so I anticipated some work needing to be done.

Mine is a mid 2012 manual car. Not sure what else I should be expecting to service?

Adam

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[Lucas_R]

Yes lucky I bought it at a good price from an online auction so I anticipated some work needing to be done.

Mine is a mid 2012 manual car. Not sure what else I should be expecting to service?

Adam

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Manual = good

Mid 2012 model = should be ok in terms of timing chain and tensioner, but you can pop off a bung on the side of the engine and shine a torch in there to check if you are worried. Just need to jack up the front and take off the drivers side front wheel. This video shows you how: YouTube

In terms of what else you should look to service over the next little while. Depending on how many km's the car has done and what its service history is like, I would put these things on your list of things to check/service:

- Coolant (perhaps ask the shop who did your water pump if they simply topped up the coolant or gave it a proper flush as part of the service)
- Brake fluid flush and check your pads/disks for wear.
- Manual gearbox oil flush
- Accessory belt running your alternator/air con
- Carbon clean on the inlet valves (even a spray clean like Liqui-Moly Petrol Engine Intake Decarb - 366g | Supercheap Auto is better than nothing. I used to use this every 6 months before doing an oil change)

[adam976]

Hi Lucas,

Thanks for the information.

It has a full dealer history so most have been done which is great.

New pads and rotors done previously. I think it may need a brake fluid flush next service.

Hopefully the clutch lasts until at least 100k kms...

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[Lucas_R]

Hopefully the clutch lasts until at least 100k kms...

Should do providing it hasn't been mistreated by previous owner or done a lot of city driving in stop/start traffic where the clutch wears out more quickly. When I sold my GTI it had 88,000km's on it with the original clutch and it had spent its entire life driving around the smallish town (small compared to Sydney anyway) of Newcastle, and about 25,000km of that time the car was tuned so it was putting more power and torque through the clutch and gearbox. The clutch was still good when I sold the car, but the guy who bought it had never driven a manual before and burnt through half of my clutch on the test drive.....so I dare say he shortened the life of the clutch a fair but and would have had to replace it within a few months of buying the car.