16 What's the easiest way of removing a water pump (A1 & A2 VWs)?
Description
This article is from the VW Technical FAQ, by with numerous contributions by Jan Vandenbrande others.
16 What's the easiest way of removing a water pump (A1 & A2 VWs)?
A: The idea is to remove the *entire* pump assembly first, and separate the
pump halves outside of the car. To remove the entire pump assembly, you
have to remove all "fan" belts, pulleys, the drive belt covers, unbolt the
alternator and move it out of the way somewhere, unbolt and reposition
the power steering pump (easy once you locate the bolts, there is
one on "the other side" that needs to be accessed with a long extension bar,
don't need to disconnect the hoses), and unbolt and relocate the AC
(don't need to detach any hoses here either).
Then removing the pump is trivial. It's just the rest of the
stuff that's a pain, depending on the model.
Be patient, there are several hidden bolts/nuts that attach the AC and
power steering pump.
Tip: Loosen the pulley bolts BEFORE removing the belts.
If you are lucky, there will be enough resistance to keep the pulleys
steady. If not, I have gone as far as to use a pipe wrench to hold
the pulleys steady.
Another tip: If your pump leaks between the halves, it's safer to replace
the pump as one unit rather than the impeller half. Chances are that the
leaking pump is warped, and no matter how often you replace one half, it'll
*always* give you problems. Use anti-seize on the bolts during reassembly.
While you are at it, check or replace the thermostat. They do get lazy
after a while. Checking/replacing the hoses may not be such a bad idea
either (note: they last ~ 70k miles or ~10 yrs IMHO).
On A1 Diesels (maybe A2) however it's easier to remove the timing belt, and
then remove the impeller half of the pump. However [Borowski] the timing
belt need not be removed on cars without air conditioning. Once the
alternator bracket is removed, the water pump comes out easily.
Tip from Greg Welch:
Stay away from non-OEM waterpumps. Some are sold with smaller
impellers and as a result do not pump as well (you run hotter).
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