Water pump

[SUF13]

Hi, I have a 2016 superb l and k. After the engine overheated, the recovery team came out and suggested the water pump had gone, which it had, at 40k miles! Is this a common problem? Thankfully it has been replaced under warranty, but wondered if this was common? Also had the cambelt done 6 months early to save on labour costs....was this a wise decision? 

 

[Sheriff]

Mine failed last June on it's 4th birthday at 112k. Had the belt replaced too, false economy not to. 

[yesman]

Unfortunately yes, Got a 2017 2.0 190 Sportline with 35k on it, mine started failing in March, Engine got very hot once and all the warnings came on, booked it in to my local VAG specialist for it to be looked at and noticed before I could take it in that on trips it would got to 100° before cooling to 90°, it was signs of an imminent failure, in the meantime asked on the forum what it could be and the answer came back "water pump failure" which surprised me but sure enough it was. The garage showed me the pump and the heat activated sleeve on the pump that moves to divert the water to aid the engine warming up, this literally gets stuck and the water doesn't go where it needs to go thus the engine overheats. Annoying but my only positive was it would need a cambelt and water pump change in 8 months so just bought that forward a bit. Definitely not a false economy as you wouldn't change a cambelt driven pump without doing the cambelt, rollers and tensioner. And any decent garage wouldn't give the option of changing the pump only as most of the cambelt change job is done just to remove the water pump.

Edited 7 June, 2021 by yesman

[Txmax]

Mine failed at 92.000 km and was replaced under warranty. My warranty expired less than one month later so I was pretty lucky. Seems to be a common problem with 2.0 tdi engines. VW should have made a recall as I have heard of other brands with the same engine (Audi, Seat, VW) having the same issue.

 

Poor built quality by VW. I guess the water pump they installed on mine is a revised one that will fail later. 

 

In my case they didn't replace the cambelt as the warranty only covered the water pump.

[Alan_P]

Can I ask anyone who had a pump failure if you previously removed the silica bag from your expansion tank? If not, did you notice if it had split?

[Txmax]

Not in my case. Silica bag it's still in there.

[Alan_P]

5 hours ago, Txmax said:

Not in my case. Silica bag it's still in there.

 

Have you checked if it’s burst/leaking? Unfortunately you can’t check with some double walled tanks, but I just wonder if a leaking bag can do more damage than blocking the matrix.

[Txmax]

On 18/06/2021 at 16:22, Alan_P said:

 

Have you checked if it’s burst/leaking? Unfortunately you can’t check with some double walled tanks, but I just wonder if a leaking bag can do more damage than blocking the matrix.

 

 

Honestly, I haven't been able to see it. I don't want to obsess with that. I've got a new water pump in, so I hope it'll last until I have to do the cambelt, at circa 180.000 km.

[Alan_P]

11 hours ago, Txmax said:

 

Honestly, I haven't been able to see it. I don't want to obsess with that. I've got a new water pump in, so I hope it'll last until I have to do the cambelt, at circa 180.000 km.

 

Understandable, but I just wonder if it could also be contributing to premature water pump failure. Maybe blocking the matrix or the abundance of silica damages the seals?