vinkodex.
Known fault

Electric water pump: silent failure, immediate overheating

Typically between 81,000 and 257,000 km. It does not show up on every car.

critical

severity

between 81,000 and 257,000 km

mileage

4

sources

4 sources next to the write-up.

The fault

How you spot it

In these engines the water pump is not belt driven but has its own electric motor. It gains on fuel consumption, but it opens a new failure path: the pump or its electronics often simply stops with no warning. Measured in the official complaints, the typical mileage is 161,000 km (a tenth of the complaints already at 81,000, a tenth only above 257,000 km). So the common wisdom of "around 100,000 km" is early: most of the failures happen between 130,000 and 250,000 km.

With a belt driven pump the flow weakens gradually, here the circulation stops in an instant. In urban traffic the temperature crosses the limit within minutes, the cylinder head distorts, and the repair is an engine rebuild.

Replacing a still good pump at around 120,000 to 150,000 km costs less than repairing an overheated engine. If the replacement is already in the service book, the pump has already been changed.

Which model

Who it affects

The card opens the generation, the engine or the transmission.

Engines and transmissions

Checklist

Electric water pump: silent failure, immediate overheating

What you would check for this fault. Take it to the car.

Before you buy

Checklist

What you tick stays on this device only.

vinkodex.com · Before you buy it, see what can go wrong.

Sources

How we know

Information, not an expert opinion

We write the descriptions, and we put the source next to them. A person reviews them before they go out. They are still information, not a technical expert opinion.

  • A fault on the list does not mean the car you are looking at has it.
  • A fault missing from the list does not mean the model is fault-free. Write-ups are made model by model. Not all of them are done.
  • You decide whether to buy. This is no substitute for an inspection. That needs a workshop and a history check.
Details in the terms