Metal impeller vs OEM

[GO-GOTEKNO]

Has anyone had the non OEM metal impeller fail ? I have heard two instances of the impeller breaking off and gouging the block. Right now I am debating between the OEM one and the metal . Any feedback would be valued .

[okkim]

I have never seen broken OEM water pump. I have heard that 1.8t's have had this problem.

[y3ti]

I've been running the HEPU metal impeller going on 2.5 years now.

The plastic impeller on my car before that actually seperated from the shaft. So the pulley would spin, but the impeller wouldn't turn with it.

[NOTORIOUS VR]

I never had an issue with an OEM Audi WP (plastic) on a 2.7T, but if I were going aftermarket I wouldn't go plastic.

[aysix]

I upgraded my water pump impeller with one of these

[GO-GOTEKNO]

Maybe I am overthinking it , also I have been told the metal impeller has more pieces ,ergo greater likliehood of failure . At this point I am now 50/50.

[okkim]

The metallic impellers what I have seen, look inefficient to me. Like this:

Compared to this:

[y3ti]

https://www.europaparts.com/water-pump-078121006a.html

HEPU uses the OEM impeller design.

I would recommend you use an OEM gasket though.

[Smitty2A4]

I was running a metal propeller pump, not sure of the brand. It lasted only 30k before the bearing started to make noise. Thankfully I picked up on it quickly and acted before it had a chance to fail completely. My shop replaced it with an OEM one which has the plastic propeller. At first I was disappointed as I always thought metal was an improvement over OEM. But after doing some research I am sure it will be fine as long as you replace it as recommended, IE every 60k. If you leave it in there well past the recommend interval I am sure the plastic is at risk for breaking down. Also in some of my searches I found people stating that the metal pumps are more prone to bearing failure.

[slow ride]

My factory pump bearings seized up causing the timing belt to fail and damaging the engine at 30k back in 2002. I've also had an aftermarket pump quit around 30k but fixed it before failing. Current aftermarket pump is good at 40k.

[Austonwerner4]

I've had the propeller fall off on a OEM (plastic) water pump.

[GO-GOTEKNO]

The metallic impellers what I have seen, look inefficient to me. Like this:

Compared to this:

That looks like a pretty big difference.

[MacDaddy]

Sounds like a crap shoot, FWIW i have a metal hepu or whatever wacko name it is been fine so far (40,00km or so) before that i had a cheap aftermarket one with plastic impeller and it leaked