gregeast

Any opinions/experience out there regarding rebuilt vs. new water pumps?

There's a significant difference in price and I'm not stuck on 'new' as necessarily meaning 'better'.

My apologies if this has been covered before, I tried doing some searching but the words rebuilt and water pump tend to get lots of hits with little relevance.

chris951

I didn't go cheap, I bought a new one from paragon. I'm a part time mechanic and everyone I work with doesn't use rebuilt stuff, you might have a difference in price, but even though money is tight being in college and all, I will not compromise with rebuilt stuff.

User 41221

I've gone both ways, but generally speaking, I tell people that if they are doing the work themselves, go rebuilt. If you are paying someone to do the work, go for a new one, for warranty purposes. I have run somewhere around 8 or 9 rebuilt pumps over the year on my various 944s and never had one fail. I had one of the three new water pumps that I have bought fail prematurely (started weeping).

If you are buying rebuilt, get it from Zims. I'm not sure where they get theirs done, but they were noticably better than the rebuilt ones from Vertex (which I *won't* run on my cars).

Regards,

NZ951

New, no question, I had the same decision to make a few months ago... got one from SFR in the end, suck it up and dont risk an impellor flying off.

avainio

When I did mine I used a new one (from Sunset), but they told me they use rebuilt pumps when they do the waterpump change in their shop and have never had a problem. I still went with a new one because it's a job I don't want to repeat for any reason.
Arne.

gstreev

Vertex was selling news ones on Ebay for $160 + Shipping.

Dash01

I installed a rebuilt, which works well and had a good price. That said, it seems a bit noisy, and in retrospect I wish I'd paid more for a new one.

gregeast

Thanks all, I know this is a is a tough one to really put real world data against since most of us probably change them proactively along with belt changes. Off to check out Zim's...

Greg

35thSLP

I just did mine about 3 months ago and used a Zims rebuilt. I asked them what they would use and they said that the rebuilt units they have, have tighter tolerances. I haven't had any problems with their rebuilt unit. (knock on wood)

nize

during the 17 years i've had my original '88 with over 180k miles, the waterpump leaked and had to be replaced only once. i used a new factory part for the replacement (they have an improved stock water pump part).

Sam Lin

Zims rebuilds on all parts are consistently higher quality than anyone else I've seen.

Sam

hosrom_951

Ditto, 2+ years with a rebuilt steering rack, power steering pump and both control arms from Zims, excellent work.