Water Pump/Timing Belt Question

[Skoobahead]

1)Did VW ever update the water pump to the *metal* impeller? If so what year Beetle has the metal water pump impeller?

2)My 2002 GLS has the AVH engine designation on the trunk sticker and on my owners manual sticker. On the timing belt metal cover there is a sticker that reads:
"Caution for test and adjustment pay attention to the motor number *AZG 071956*

What gives? Do I have an AVH or AZG motor?

Thanks

[hannaco]

VW did update the water pump impeller. They relocated the metal spring inside the plastic impeller.
For the correct motor code, look for the code stamped into the motor.

[Skoobahead]

Hannaco,

Do you know what model year they made the upgrade to the waterpumps?

Where should I look for the engine stamping?

Thanks

[jbehm]

Notice he side that they upgraded the metal SPRING within the plastic impeller. Not that the impeller is metal now. Before I ordered my kit from ECS I checked at the dealer and they did not have any knowledge of a metal impeller water pump. That was only about 2 months ago.

[Skoobahead]

Hey JBEHM,

Have you changed yours yet?
How many miles were on your car and did you find any discrepancies with the old water pump?

[Fowvay]

The Water pump with the metal impeller is actually an older design. The plastic pumps are the updated versions.

The early batches of the plastic pumps are very very fragile while the later versions seem to be getting better and better.

However I know the reliability record of the Metal pump and trust it to last at least 60,000 miles (when I change my belts). Actually you can pretty much count on them to last a full 105,000 miles but since I have many performance mods and put extra stress on the entire system I feel much more comfortable changing all that stuff early.

Tom aka Fowvay

[Skoobahead]

Hey Fowvay!

Your a boatload of knowledge!


Thanks

[jbehm]

I changed mine along with timing belt, thermostat and temp sensor about 1 month ago at exactly 74,900 miles. My water pump was intact but did have the common cracks in it. It was cracked in 3 places. All of the cracks started in the center where it is attached to the shaft. I suppose it was just a matter of time before those cracks spread to the outside and it fell apart. My timing belt on the other hand was quite worn. No missing teeth or anything, just very worn out looking, at least to me.

The metal impeller water pump just looked much more robust, probably because it's metal! The plastic used for the impeller just seems very brittle and probably gets more brittle with every heating/cooling cycle of the engine.

[Robyn029]

thats funny that you mentioned that your water pump was cracked 3 times so was mine i just got it back from being repaired. vw really needs to change the water pump impeller.