tomekz

Anyone replace the water pump yet?

Maybe someone has seen some instruction on replacements of the pump?

thanks,

thecajunboy

You should be able to download the factory service manual HERE

981KMAN

I'm clearly jumping way ahead here, yet if you have what appears to be a Water Pump Leak, and think you need to replace the Pump, first check to see if its not just the connection between the Molded Water Pipe to the Water Pump Housing. This is a know 981 weak spot, and creates a small coolant leak and is easily mistaken for a water pump bearing leak. Porsche upgraded this joint with an easy fix in 2017. See thread link below.

Thread Here

tomekz

No. I do not have a leaks anywhere. Was thinking of changing the coolant since it has never been done, and since I have to drain the coolant thought about just replacing the water pump at the same time.

01010011

I replaced my water pump about a month ago. There was absolutely no indication anything was wrong, but since I was doing a 60K service and I was replacing the serpentine belt, I figured I might as well do the water pump “while I was in there.” From what I gather, 981s don't have the same failure rate of water pumps that 987s do, but it was only about $100 for the parts (FCP Euro with a lifetime warranty), and I had everything apart I needed to access, so I figured it might save me some hassle later down the road. It's the kind of job I'd much rather do when I am prepared vs. dealing with a failure at some unexpected time. Not that it can't still happen.

Anyway, as far as instructions, I referenced the service manual linked above. Once you have the belt off, it is really simple, just remove all the screws and pull it off. If you lift the car and remove the engine cover below, you can catch coolant that spills out from there.

Despite removing what feels like half the interior to access stuff, I actually feel like it was the easiest water pump job I've ever done. Often, on a front-engine car, you have to pull the radiator for clearance, etc. All the other water pump jobs I've done have been on older cars that probably had questionable coolant running through them at some point during their lives as well, so I've had to deal with gaskets stuck to the block, corrosion, etc. Nothing like that here. The pump came off cleanly; I just wiped everything off and installed the new one.

The only setback I ran into, which was purely my mistake/lack of knowledge, was refilling the coolant. I thought I was prepared with an airlift-type filling tool but stupidly didn't realize that the actual coolant reservoir cap is underneath the engine top cover. I tried to fill with the filler port you can access in the trunk, which obviously didn't work because you can't create the proper vacuum there. So I ended up with air, and I had to go through the whole bleed procedure. For this, I actually read up on the procedure first, which involves removing the engine top cover, flipping the bleed valve, and then hooking up to a PIWIS system and following the steps there. That worked successfully, but it was just a lot more hassle than if I had used my vacuum filler on the actual coolant reservoir.

tomekz

So you went with the cheaper water pump with the metal impeller, and not the porsche water pump with the composite impeller?

Wonder if that makes a difference.

01010011

Yes I bought one with a metal impeller. I have no idea there is a noticeable difference.