So when I did my 60k service (i try to do it every 5k) i noticed the water level was quite low so I was expecting the pump to let go, within 4k it did so ordered a new one from US, decided to order from ECS. Before I ordered I did a few ours of research and decided to the get the latest version of the pump for the California spec GTI, because from the photos it looked like the top bit doesn't have the little hump (this is were it least as it flakes off after a while, and metal base for the actual pump.

Doing this job is not too easy, I called a few places to see how much they charge and cheapest was $700 for the labor alone and they wanted the car for two days and lots of other caveats mainly because I bought my own pump and didn't pay their exorbitant $899. So anyhow everything from ECS arrived, pump, seals (did not need them), VW Coolant, 5 litres of engine oil, 6 litres of DSG oil, DSG filter, engine oil filter, air filter, pollen filter, GFB diverter valve and all the other crap you need to do a full major service. Went out to Autobarn and got the HEX, Torx and Spline socket sets and got stuck into it. Thought to myself I'll smash this out in 4 hours......


So took the belly pan out undid the intake pipe and took one bolt from the bracket of the auxiliary water pump out so the auxiliary water pump is free to move. Removed the the intake and air filter box, disconnected all the plugs and crap and finally pulled the intake manifold off. If you think you can do it without pulling the intake manifold off please don't. Here is why.

Manifold off and no surprises here
MK6 GTI Water Pump @65k like clockwork-img_20160612_132608_zpszcvvvitb-jpg

From the other side
MK6 GTI Water Pump @65k like clockwork-img_20160612_141718_zpsyfjmjzch-jpg

Differences between new and old pump
MK6 GTI Water Pump @65k like clockwork-img_20160612_141627_zps8asqlcbh-jpg


New Pump
MK6 GTI Water Pump @65k like clockwork-img_20160612_141701_zpsasbatxgn-jpg


So that was the easy bit ..... changing a water pump is easy, this is the crap part.....
MK6 GTI Water Pump @65k like clockwork-img_20160612_131613_zpssmegmhwa-jpg

And ....
MK6 GTI Water Pump @65k like clockwork-img_20160612_134747_zps537ovpiy-jpg

Car did run ok thou but was only getting 520km per tank with caj driving

The injector in the pic was the average one, some had massive amount of carbon on them, the valves were absolutely ****ing caked with it, I let 3 of the cylinders soak (the per was on the intake broke so no can do ) with some Moly upper cylinder cleaner then took at them with a pic, see pic above. The crap thing is that the carbon is so hard you almost bend the pic in it. After about 2 hours soak it was a little easier but man.....

Now I got to finish the job tomorrow or some other day this week ... these cars suffer badly from this. I think the fix would be to block the hose that goes into the intake manifold and get a PCV blocking plate (africa plate) as once the stock PCV fails it will literally put all the boost into the engine and bye bye rear main seal.

The story will continue when I get a chance ....but for the love of god don't just change the pump without taking the manifold off and clean the valves as you never know how bad it is and you'll just have to do it again.

they wanted $1200 for valve clean and $700 to replace the pump well not bad for a days work but I guess it takes 2 days to get it done by myself or maybe 1 day if the valve are not so bad....

Catch can and Africa PCV delete plate coming soon