what's the deal??? - BMW Forum

polaris448 · 02-25-2006, 12:58 AM

Here's the problem. I have replaced the water pump twice already. The first one was stock and had a good amount of mileage. The second, i assumed was a crap replacement part (it happens). then today, i hear the damn thing chuckling and i took the belt off and sure enough the bearing has a lot of play in it. approx. Cm each way you wiggle it. now i have bought a ton of parts from napa and have been fully satisfied until i got these POS water pumps(they have the metal impeller). this is a 97 w/m44. anyone else have these sort of problems? any ideas? should i buy a certain brand? i am just about sick of doing these water pump jobs.

Furious · 02-25-2006, 04:14 AM

usually i stick with OE when it comes to cooling system unless its an upgrade.

korsion · 02-25-2006, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by polaris448

Here's the problem. I have replaced the water pump twice already. The first one was stock and had a good amount of mileage. The second, i assumed was a crap replacement part (it happens). then today, i hear the damn thing chuckling and i took the belt off and sure enough the bearing has a lot of play in it. approx. Cm each way you wiggle it. now i have bought a ton of parts from napa and have been fully satisfied until i got these POS water pumps(they have the metal impeller). this is a 97 w/m44. anyone else have these sort of problems? any ideas? should i buy a certain brand? i am just about sick of doing these water pump jobs.

Was it the plastic impreller one you replaced it with or the metal impreller ?

bob318 · 02-26-2006, 01:13 AM

go to the dealership man. theyll order u a one

polaris448 · 03-03-2006, 12:54 AM

ok here's an update on the water pump. it turns out that with some research that napa's top water pump has twice the failure rate than the middle of the road one. one is made in the US and the other is made in japan. guess where the one that costs less and fails less is made...japan. well the only problem with the japan one is that napa can't get one for a long time...over a week. so i am trying auto zone's, which has a lifetime warrenty. napa's pumps had the metel impeller and az's has the plastic...i thought that the one with the metal impeller was better? napa's wp is made by cardone just to let you know to stay away from them and they were the new one's not the reman. either. go figure right? one last note, the stealership wanted me to basically walk in there backwards to pay. i think they wanted like 2 hundo. are they nutz or what? az's was 54.99.

Dudesky_E36 · 03-03-2006, 04:54 AM

The plastic impellers are obviously bad, but a lot of the metal impellers are known to have weak bearing assemblies. You want the composite impeller for the win

korsion · 03-03-2006, 05:31 AM

Stay well well away from the crap plastic imprellers.

tomctx · 03-03-2006, 07:32 AM

Try www.bimmerworld.com or www.bimmerparts.com