Replacing the water pump. 1990 Jetta II CLi 1800 8V, AC,PS

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Rietbok
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Replacing the water pump. 1990 Jetta II CLi 1800 8V, AC,PS

Post by Rietbok »

It turns out my water pump is packing up after 330 000km. :(

Now I need to replace this little beasty and have some questions for those who might have been down this road before.

First a bit about the car.

This model has Aircon and power steering. So some extra bits and bobs to remove before getting to the water pump.

Questions...

1. ) Does anyone know if you need to remove the lower cam belt cover to get at all the bolts to remove the water pump?

2. ) What are the odds of having problems with bolts breaking off due to the age of the car, or does VW make them strong. :P

3. ) Any tips and tricks for this repair?

4. ) Anyone experience any problems with the Goldwagen replacement part?

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While I'm there I think a new pump, new thermostat and new o-rings are in order. I guess the pump comes with its own gasket else one of those too. :)
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Post by Jetta2 »

Get a complete water pump like the one in the pic, take off the fanbelt driving the water pump, remove the 4 bolts holding it to the block, take off old pump, remove pulley from old one, pop it onto the new pump, replace pump, put fanbelt back, job done :wink: :wink:

If you only get the impeller part of the pump then you'll have to take off some other bits like the power steering pump, etc to get to the front bolts holding the impeler to the WP housing. Way easy and quicker to replace the whole unit one shot.

And 330 000 k's for a water pump is not bad going.
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Post by EX-DOHCTOR »

As long as you buy the Mehle pump you'll be fine. it comes with everything that you'll need.

AFAIK the bolts are facing the front of the car, there will be some on the underside for the plastic 'L' piece that takes the pipe from the radiator.

It might be the ideal time to check all the water hoses for cracks or leaks and flush the system to clean it out. Panic mentioned a procedure a while back to correctly flush the radiator and cooling system but I can't seem to find it now.

Basically IIRC you'll add a strong caustic powder to the existing water and run the system for a while. This should remove some of the grime and rust from the system.

Also remember buy 2 Bottles of the VW Coolant (G12), it's a pink/red liquid. Makes sure that you refill the coolant to the correct ratio.

Generally, you'll add these two bottles and then fill up with water.
Start the car and let things circulate throught the engine and then top up as needed.

The ratio needs to be correct because the coolant also acts as a lubricant for the pumps internals IIRC.
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Post by panic-mechanic »

Soda ash.
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Post by EX-DOHCTOR »

panic-mechanic wrote:Soda ash.
Ah yes! That's it.

Thanks Panic.
2014 - VW Jetta 6 - 1.6 TDi DSG
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1980 - VW MK1 GT - 1.8 Carb - https://www.vwclub.co.za/forum/viewtopi ... 1&t=153861
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Post by Rietbok »

Thanks for all the advice guys. Sounds not too terrible a job then. :)

Ok, been to GW got the parts, just hope I don't need to fight too hard to get the pulley off the old pump.

Soda Ash... where can I get some of that?
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Post by panic-mechanic »

Pharmacy or pool chemicals shop.
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Post by Rietbok »

Thanks Panic...

Feedback.... lol... my troubles know no end with this car at the moment. Last night I'm stripping and cleaning in prep to fit the new water pump. All is going extremely well until I try and remove the top large radiator hose from the radiator.

I loosen the clamp... no problem there.... twist the hose a little to break the bond between the hose and radiator fitting... still no problems... then I start easing the hose back off the radiator... and off comes the top fitting together with the pipe. @!$#@#$@#$ :evil:

Anyway... like everything else on a car with such high mileage... the plastic that the radiator is made of on the sides is as brittle as ****, so if it didn't break now, it would have broken on the road somewhere and then I'd have really been pissed. :x

Removing the radiator from a Jetta II with AC is a really pain in the ass. Since the AC hasn't been working for years now I'm really tempted to just rip out the AC stuff while I'm there. But then there's the issue of the various ancillary device belts if I removed the AC compressor. Maybe some other time...

So... this morning its off to GW to go snaffle a new radiator. And hopefully fit that, and the water pump etc... close the bonnet and hope nothing else breaks in the mean time. 8)
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Post by panic-mechanic »

I feel your pain man. I know what it's like to work on high milage cars like that. And once you start it doesn't seem to stop. Till you just about ready to burn it and then it suddenly stops. Just hang on in there. With old cars like that I normally try to pry the hose off softly by inserting a small screwdriver under the pipe and going around but often those plastics still break. The worst is on a VR where it has plastic connectors for the oil cooler. Man those ALWAYS break off if you just touch them. Or the other favorite is the small connector on the radiator on the right where the bleed pipe comes out.
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Post by Rietbok »

She's working... Finally! :D

Ok... so to change the water pump on this model it turns out you need to do the following.

1. ) Drain the coolant from the engine. ( Either catch it in a container, or push the car back away from where you want to work. Keep your work area dry. )

2. ) Loosen the 6mm Allen screws holding the water pump pulley. ( Use two allen keys, one in the one you're loosening, and another in one of the other 3 screws to old the pulley still. ). Just slacken, don't remove the pulley yet.

3. ) Now slacken off the alternator, AC compressor and Power steering pump, and remove the three belts that drive them.

4. ) Remove the earth lead from the battery. And remove the two leads on the Alternator. Secure these two leads out of the way without touching the engine. ( just incase... :wink: )

5. ) Now unbolt and remove the Alternator, as well as the AC compressor and Power steering pump. The latter two can just be moved aside where ever it is convenient based on the hoses connecting them.

6. ) Now you can see the bracket the holds the Alternator and AC pump, below this is the bracket that holds the Power steering pump. I found it was simpler to remove both these brackets and while they were off to give them a clean. With these brackets off your access to the water pump is completely unrestricted.

7. ) The two no.13 bolts holding the top bracket are also the lower two water pump bolts. To remove the top Allen screw holding the top bracket you'll need to pop off the plastic cover on the side of the top section of the cam belt cover and unscrew the 6mm Allen screw. ( It's tight but it does go, I used some Q20 and patience. )

8. ) With the brackets removed you can now see the water pump clearly. Remove the last two top no.13 bolts, as well as the no.13 bolt on the side of the cam belt cover. Unscrew the hose clamps of the hoses attached to the pump and remove them from the pump at the same time. The pump should now pull free.

9. ) While you are poking around the cooling system clean and check all the other components. Make sure the pipes are clean inside and have a smooth surface to seal against the new pump. Check the radiator and if the car is old make sure the plastic hasn't gone brittle. It's just so much easier to replace the radiator now while access is easy than later on when the brittle plastic cracks and leaves you stranded at the side of the road.

10. ) You might as well fit a new thermostat and thermostat housing. Also remove the thermostatic switch from the side of the radiator and test it in a pot of water on the stove with your multimeter to see that it really is switching. If not replace it. They're really cheap and then you know the pump and thermostat are fine for the foreseeable future. 8)

11. ) Refitting is self explanatory. Just use small amounts of silicone sealant to help things seal up nicely. It also lubricates the inside of the pipes while you push them back on, and then dries to seal up the joints. 8) Don't put too much on... too much could go places where you don't want blobs of silicone to go.

12. ) Once its all closed up again first fill her up with plain water! Really... if you'd buggered something up and the coolant pisses out and you've put your nice new expensive coolant in and you see the bright coloured fluid running down the garage floor then you'll be :evil: .

13. ) There will probably be some air pockets that need to be worked out, but should not be too big a problem. I found that blowing on the top of the water bottle helped get the air out. Once you're happy that there are no leaks without the engine running, you can fire up the engine.

14. ) Let the engine run one full heating / cooling cycle watching closely for leaks and other problems. You can tell if the water is flowing normally by feeling the pipes and watching for the trickle of water running from the small pipe connected to the top of the water reservoir bottle. Once you've seen this its important to close the reservoir bottle cap. If you don't you're just going to boil your water!

15. ) At about 80 degrees the bottom radiator pipe should also heat up. Before then it will be cold to the touch. At about 91-97 or so the radiator fan should come on. If all these things happened OK. If not...

15.1 ) If the water boiled, it might not be a problem. Air could be messing you around in the system somewhere. Force the fan on and cool the car down a little, adding water ( not ice cold water ) slowly to the reservoir. Switch the car off. Now carry on filling the reservoir until full. This time more of the water circuit would be open because the thermostat would remain open for a short while after the engine stops running.

15.1.1 ) Now start the car again, and leave the reservoir cap off initially. Manually control the temperature as it gets beyond 80 degrees C. by turning on the AC which will make the radiator fan spin. Once the air is out and things look normal, replace the reservoir cap tightly. Now run the motor until it gets to around 91-97 without the AC on. The radiator fan should come on on its own. If the temperature gets to over 100 and the fan has still not come on, then you probably have a bad thermostatic fan switch.

15.2 ) If all the above in 15.1 did not help, then something else is wrong. And you'll need to look more closely. Dud thermostat maybe? Problem with the head gasket? Blockage somewhere in the water journals?

Hope this helps someone. Good luck!
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Post by panic-mechanic »

Nice writeup. I take it all is well now and quiet?.
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Post by Rietbok »

Thanks Panic, yip... all running smoothly.

I was just thinking... someone should start a section on this forum where the moderators can take some of the better write ups and save them. In this way building a how-to manual for the various VWs. :)
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Post by panic-mechanic »

it exists - it's called FAQ. moderators should just take it there.
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Re: Replacing the water pump. 1990 Jetta II CLi 1800 8V, AC,PS

Post by wilmien »

I had a guy rebuilding our engine but now he wants to remove the aircon pump completely. Say we dont need it but then we must get another fanbelt to fit because old one wont fut anymore. So after he took it out the pulley on the alternator and the botton pulley doesnt line up. He want to weld an extra piece onto the alternator for it to line up. All this doesnt seem right. Please help
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Re: Replacing the water pump. 1990 Jetta II CLi 1800 8V, AC,PS

Post by panic-mechanic »

You don't need the pump if you don't want aircon.
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Re: Replacing the water pump. 1990 Jetta II CLi 1800 8V, AC,PS

Post by wilmien »

We fitted the pump again. So now one belt is running on the alternator and the aircon pump. All in line. We did not connect the aircon pump. So ita basicly just there so the belt from alternator can run on that pulley. Asked local nechanic also yesterday. I jusr dont want this guy to weld stuff to the alternator and bugger it up.
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Re: Replacing the water pump. 1990 Jetta II CLi 1800 8V, AC,PS

Post by panic-mechanic »

There are correct pulleys to space them without the aircon pump. And no - you don't need to weld or anything.
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