water pump

[Spooon]

sorry i wasnt sure where this fit in the forums but i was wonder if this seller can be trusted since i need to replace my water pump and it claims to be better than stock ones which includes a 2 year warranty.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Mazda-MX-5-NA-B6 ... 2c5650b0e7

if not then would is there a place in brisbane where i could find one?

[Mr Morlock]

buying a water pump is easy. You can buy from Mazda or go to Bursons - likely in or around your suburb and maybe ex stock or within a day or so. Also you will get a warranty that you can access easily- why bother with e bay. Any part you want for MX5 try Mazda first and benchmark pricing. E bay is often a bad choice.

[StanTheMan]

are you doing the timing belt as well? or just the pump?

[manga_blue]

Have a search through US ebay first. Waterpumps are cheaper there if you can afford 2 weeks or so to ship. If you can identify the pumps as made by GMB then it's made by the OEM manufacturer in Japan and most likely higher quality than Mazda sell locally. The high volume US ebay sellers have almost wiped out dedicated car manufacturer brand suppliers to trade users there by beating them on both price and quality.
http://www.gmb.net/

As STM says it's well worth picking up a timing belt kit from the same supplier at the same time. Changing the water pump also involves 80% of the work you need to do to change timing belt.

[fastfreddygassit]

jeez, this thread was all the motivation I needed to buy stuff again!!
ebay link for BP 1.8 timing belt kit
(Pack includes:TIMING BELT, TIMING BELT TENSIONER, TIMING BELT IDLER ROLLER, WATER PUMP)
$AUS140 including delivery. I'll let you know when I get it.

[wun911]

Ive used an aftermarket water pump its ok as in it works its been 30 k km no problems

The gaskit that comes with the e bay ones arnt very good, so I ended up buying the oem gaskits...

[Mr Morlock]

You can buy an aftermarket item and it may be ok and quite possibly made by a car OEM supplier. Many people are buying purely on price and have no idea of the quality or endurance of the item. OEM component suppliers are under heavy pressure and have exceptionally stringent quality systems- they supply the products to a demanding and knowing customer the OEM car maker. Unfortunately some OE quality items are more expensive than they need to be and bear little resemblance to the component suppliers selling price. Many OE items cannot be sold by component suppliers to the public as they do not own the tooling.

There are a number of threads about aftermarket items on this forum which bear out the very ordinary quality of some aftermarket items like having to make mods to get them fitted. I know of one well known MX5 specialist who only buys Mazda supplied components for timing belt and water pump changes- he could source cheaper items but is not prepared to take a chance.

[jules]

Mr Morlock is correct here. I have seen an after market pump fail on start-up. That was AFTER about 5-6 hours of spanner work. Go genuine. There is a reason the genuine pump does not need a gasket, but the after market ones do.

Jules

[Wuey]

Having suffered a second engine top end job within a week due to using non OEM components from an obscure source, I vouch to never touch them again for critical work. Many years ago, I went to a local auto parts supplier to source for a gasket and seal kit for a top end job to rebuild my wife's Corolla. The head gasket fitted fine but I thought the valve stem seals were quite loose. I proceeded with the rebuild nonetheless as I wanted to finish the job on a Sunday night. Sure enough the car was blowing smoke like crazy as the loose seals allowed oil to seep into the combustion chamber. A replacement kit from Repco worked after I traded an arm and a leg for the kit. Toyota wanted me to take out a second mortgage for the OEM stuff.

With more competition, Repco seems to be quite reasonable these days. Many people have success for stuff bought over the internet, so YMMV.

Make sure that you apply some gasket sealant(the thick and gooey black stuff) on both mating surfaces before you install the pump.

[Spooon]

thanks for the reply guys. and ill make sure to get an OEM waterpump instead since it looks like the safest way to go.