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What did you do to your MK6 today?

Cyrok

Passed Driver's Ed
its been a while...Decided to keep the car so why not giving her a new look with Osram Headlights from euro auto parts.
Really enjoying the refreshing new look , just hit a 100k too :eek: :D
Also did cam ladder reseal and new tensioner kit recently.
 

Cyrok

Passed Driver's Ed
oops forgot the pic;
osram 1_LI.jpg
 

Mk6Autobahn

Autocross Champion
Well that was a fun year... Came out to the car this afternoon and immediately upon startup I got a low coolant warning. Shut it off and sure enough, Christmas in July under the car... About half a tank of coolant on the ground.

I went an entire year without annoying coolant leaks and now they’re back. Pretty sure it’s my water pump this time, which was replaced a year ago along with my heater core hose. To think I was just saying yesterday how it was finally reliable haha
 

torga

Autocross Champion
Damn, sorry to hear that! Why shit gotta cost money
 

jay745

What Would Glenn Danzig Do
Well that was a fun year... Came out to the car this afternoon and immediately upon startup I got a low coolant warning. Shut it off and sure enough, Christmas in July under the car... About half a tank of coolant on the ground.

I went an entire year without annoying coolant leaks and now they’re back. Pretty sure it’s my water pump this time, which was replaced a year ago along with my heater core hose. To think I was just saying yesterday how it was finally reliable haha
Get an aluminum pump and be done with it.
 

Mk6Autobahn

Autocross Champion
Get an aluminum pump and be done with it.
Ideally I’d upgrade. I still have an extended warranty, however, so I need to make sure I won’t void anything, or if possible, just pay the difference with the upgraded part. They’ve been a hassle in the past, so I hope they will work with me. Taking it in later today after I flash back to stock.

If I were to attempt to do this on my own though and get an aluminum, what kit/brand is recommended? I saw some like the Graf kit on urotuning rated almost 5 stars, but then the same kit from FCP euro was awfully rated... Also I read 6hrs to install, is that realistic?

Has anyone experienced failure with a metal housing? I really don’t want to do this a fourth time.
 

torga

Autocross Champion
Ideally I’d upgrade. I still have an extended warranty, however, so I need to make sure I won’t void anything, or if possible, just pay the difference with the upgraded part. They’ve been a hassle in the past, so I hope they will work with me. Taking it in later today after I flash back to stock.

If I were to attempt to do this on my own though and get an aluminum, what kit/brand is recommended? I saw some like the Graf kit on urotuning rated almost 5 stars, but then the same kit from FCP euro was awfully rated... Also I read 6hrs to install, is that realistic?

Has anyone experienced failure with a metal housing? I really don’t want to do this a fourth time.
The bad reviews on the Graf pump all stem from shitty seals and/or shitty thermostat, which I've been echoing every time I see the aluminum pump come up. The Graf pump is good, but you need to spend the extra $100 or so for OEM o-rings/seals, an OEM thermostat and an OEM temp sensor (re-use yours if there's nothing wrong with it). The ones the Graf pump comes with are all the most bottom bin parts you could possibly buy; the o-ring quality was the biggest joke. Some of the o-rings looked as if a Hefty bag was melted down and shaped into a circle by hand.
Replace all o-rings using silicone lube and the aluminum pump is the end-all solution. There are some on here who've had theirs much longer than me, but I've had mine for 6 months and about 3000mi and it's bone dry under my car.

As for install time, I'd say 4-6 hours is realistic. You don't have to remove the intake manifold, either.
 

jay745

What Would Glenn Danzig Do
weird, I inspected everything pretty thoroughly when I put mine in and didn't notice any issues with quality of O rings. I've had it on almost a year and haven't seen any problems knock on wood.

4-6 hours if you've never done it before is probably realistic. I did a water pump a few weeks ago for a customer in about 3 and I removed the manifold. I see people saying you don't have to and you probably don't but it's much much easier to just take the manifold off. Only takes about 30 minutes to remove it and it leaves you with much more room to work and see.
 

torga

Autocross Champion
You don't have to remove it for just the water pump. I left my manifold in place and didn't feel like I was severely limiting myself. I removed the TB and charge pipe and that was all the space I needed.

But I DO wish I had removed the manifold for the oil cooler that I replaced at the same time. It was doable, but a major PITA with the manifold in place.
 

jay745

What Would Glenn Danzig Do
The bad reviews on the Graf pump all stem from shitty seals and/or shitty thermostat, which I've been echoing every time I see the aluminum pump come up. The Graf pump is good, but you need to spend the extra $100 or so for OEM o-rings/seals, an OEM thermostat and an OEM temp sensor (re-use yours if there's nothing wrong with it). The ones the Graf pump comes with are all the most bottom bin parts you could possibly buy; the o-ring quality was the biggest joke. Some of the o-rings looked as if a Hefty bag was melted down and shaped into a circle by hand.
Replace all o-rings using silicone lube and the aluminum pump is the end-all solution. There are some on here who've had theirs much longer than me, but I've had mine for 6 months and about 3000mi and it's bone dry under my car.

As for install time, I'd say 4-6 hours is realistic. You don't have to remove the intake manifold, either.
Did you take pics of the bad seals by chance?
 

torga

Autocross Champion
Did you take pics of the bad seals by chance?
I didn't. They mostly looked ok, but just not top tier o-ring quality. The worst one was the thermostat housing seal; my melted Hefty bag quip was not an exaggeration for this one. It was god-awful.
 
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