Thread: P38 Water Pump Condition

Originally Posted by daf11e

Changed mine a couple of weeks ago.....glad I did....no more temp fluctuations and runs much cooler.

Bloody hell that pump had done some work !

This must be the season for new waterpumps. I've just replaced my original one at 160,000km, even though nothing was wrong with it. It just seems to me that was enough work before the seal or the bearing fails.

As for why I thought it was the original, the bolts were unmarked and there wasn't a single scratch on the pumps' gasket face after I took it off - and it was a b****r to get it off. Replacing the new radiator, pump and thermostat only took about 3-4 hours, even though I'm a bit slow, but the gasket alone needed me about another 2-3 hours to carefully remove it.

The old pump is an old stamped OEM steel impeller version but there was no corrosion visible and the car still had clean oat coolant, as it was when I bought it last year. It looked that the gasket was installed dry, but it was like concrete. When I replace the gasket I used a smear of Loctite 510 that I've used before.

At the same time, I replaced the thermostat as it looked very old, but was working correctly and the radiator, which was leaking through a cracked breathing spigot. On the radiator, I reinforced the spigot with a brass tube glued in with Devcon Plastic Welder. This is one of their later methacrylate glues that supports 120C temperatures. After almost 8 months I thought I had fixed that one permanently but in the last couple of weeks I noticed a tiny bleed of coolant under the glue, so I used my new spare that has been in the garage, waiting.

The new waterpump I bought is a Spanish Airtex bronze impeller version, the radiator is from GM Radiators, Glasgow and a genuine OEM thermostat, all from the same supplier, RoverLord, with great support. When I istalled the the new GM radiator I drilled, glued and sleeved the spigot with aluminium before it was broken, as the design there is weak.

Enough. Thanks all.