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Water Pump- Bosch vs GMB vs Gates

Yea I always use OEM top seals. The Hepu fits better though than an OEM pump. I had an OEM pump before the Hepu and it never fit quite right.
 
Ryan_R said:
Y'wanna know why? :) The top seal Hepu supplies is garbage, so it compresses easily, making it real easy to thread the screws. In a year or so, you'll have a leak. I did. Twice. I replaced two pumps with Hepu's at the same time, both failed there after the same number of miles. I've done countless B230/B234 water pumps, and never had a leaker.

On stamped impellers in OEM pumps: Lotsa "I know best" in the community on this subject. I never had a problem with cooling. I did a water pump on an XC-90 T6 and was surprised to see a nearly identical impeller on that pump. For 6 cylinders, and two turbo's!

Best thing you can do is go Hepu with seals from Volvo, but then you're paying as much or more than OEM. OEM Pump from Tasca is $71 as of last night.

-Ryan
Click to expand...

I use the OEM pump and seals for this reason plus it lasts 2x longer than any aftermarket pump. It should be a PITA to wedge up into the head surface. Aftermerket seals are soft and deform and squash after some heating cycles.
The shaft on a Volvo pump is bigger, bigger bearings and seals are better, new good hardware (worth $10 right there) and can go 200k miles which a GMB or HEPU would be hard to get past 100k miles. The current pump I had on my '89 245 for 20k then put it on my 91 245 5 yrs ago and 110k miles and still going strong. Worht every penney to me.

BTW, I use nothing but Indian Head sealer on anything coolant related and I've never had one hose or pump seal leak yet. If you really want to depend on it, there's nothing better. No Silicone or RTV for me.
 
GmbH is Bosch, but "GMB" is from Japan.

A local foreign parts specialist warned me about quality control issues with GMB, and they have stopped selling their products, due to their lack of responsibility over the issue. They didn't have Hepu, but did stock Gates. I installed the Gates pump a year ago, it went on flawless, and has held up, no leaks/issues under hard driving conditions
 
In all of my years of owning, driving and working on Volvo cars....particularly red blocks, I have specifically ordered a name brand water pump...1 time.

I bought the 94 Model 940 that my wife drives about 6 years ago with 97K miles on the meter.
It was a cherry, and I thought that I would go the extra mile (which is unusual for me) and replace all of the belts and water pump (which was showing having been replaced once before already) with "Top Quality" parts....meaning the best available.

I chose a HEPU pump for the first and only time.
After 1 year and 20K miles, I replaced it with a off the shelf Advance Auto pump, which it is still running.
The HEPU looked good, but as we all know, looks ain't everything.
It failed at the shaft seal.
 
Wow. My thread got bumped after 4 years. Turns out the overheating was from a radiator that was completely caked solid with sand/road grime on the bottom half. Threw in a clean used rad and cooling returned to normal. Bought a GMB and an Omni 5 to keep on the shelf in case I needed it. The Omni 5 was a Rockauto close out for 11 bucks, so couldn't pass that up.

About 3 months later, noticed temperature shot up again on the commute in to work one morning. Big puddle of coolant from a failed water pump gasket. Refilled it and managed to it home (about 9km).

Anyways, pulled off old pump. Pump itself seemed fine, but a section of the gasket about 1 1/2" long had blown out on the bottom. The old pump is a GMB and assume the gasket was as well. Either way, put in the GMB with the supplied gasket and seals and continued to drive it for about 6 months until a new job with a company vehicle (awesome 2006 Escape Hybrid, ftw). 240 now sits most of the week.

I did notice some coolant loss during the past spring and found a small, weepy leak at the top o-ring. I do recall using petroleum jelly during the install, so that likely shortened the lifespan of the seal. I did score some silicone lube and Volvo gaskets and seals for the next time.
 
I too am noticing that the Hepu pump top seals crap out after a year or so. Just had a customer call me today with one that was weeping that was installed a little under three years ago with less than 10K driven since it was replaced. The next one I do, I'm getting a Volvo top seal for the Hepu pump.
 
My guru likes GMB* because they come with new bolts, besides just gaskets (IIRC).


* never found out story on quality control issues, who knows maybe it was an isolated incident ?
 
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I've had really good luck with the Gates pumps ordered through Rock Auto. Cast and machined impeller for those that care. I'm 0 for 3 on leaking top seals using the supplied ones with the pumps.
 
The Kool-aid is strong. A good handful of brands have been recommended in this thread. On this very page, there is a counter-example to the cult of Hepu. Post #26

coalminer said:
I chose a HEPU pump for the first and only time ...
After 1 year and 20K miles ...
It failed at the shaft seal.
Click to expand...

In addition, as confirmed by this thread, it is foolish to instal any pump using seals that carry any brand except Volvo
 
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Harry Tuttle said:
The Kool-aid is strong. Post #26
Click to expand...

Yup. My personal opinion is brand name might be about 20% of the longevity equation with the remainder mostly made up of installation technique and the surrounding environment.

Here's an example of the 20% contribution. One on the left didn't generate enough oomph at idle to move the coolant. My conclusion 15 years ago was the vanes were too shallow, but one could ask whether restrictions in the head or radiator contributed. Same with belt tightness on that awful 3-pulley 240 design affecting bearing and seal wear on those deemed shaft seal failures.

wpumps.jpg
 
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What is the latest verdict on water pumps? Are the pumps with the stamped impeller something to stay away from?
 
Buy a GMB and be done with it. Those are the only pumps I use. Cheap and a 100% success record for me. Still made in Japan. Almost all the cheap pumps are Chinese made now.
 
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