What the hell was VW thinking.... Plastic water pump tines??? Its a cooling system that runs at 190 degrees. Plastic is gonna break in that heat. And sure enough it did. I live in St. George Utah... The temperature the last few weeks have been 110 f to 120 f, its hot. So overheating a little here is a common problem. the one time I saw the needle go just past 190 on a hot day I was on my way to lunch with the brother. Stopped, ate lunch came back out an hour later and started to drive back to work. Not 2 miles down the road and the gauge is just climbing... I stopped and let it cool thinking it was just really hot... maybe low on coolant. Everything was fine. So I limped it home. I have an old chevy and it does the same thing when the thermostat goes out... So I figure ok I've got a bad thermostat. 40 bucks at the dealer got me a new thermostat. Too bad it was defective when I got it home and tested it in hot water and it wouldn't open. But as I stared looking at it..... ITS THE SAME AS A CHEVY 350 THERMOSTAT... I took the 40 dallor piece of crap back to the dealer and installed a 6.99 chevy 350 thermostat. But still over heating.. After beating my head against the wall for 2 days I finally towed it to Midas and had a free coolant sys diagnostic run. They said it was the water pump. So after some research and planning I went to my local parts place and purchased a lifetime warranty water pump, and timing belt (the timing belt drives the pump, might as well change it while im in there) for 90 bucks. Now come the hard part. All-Data showed exactly ever step to do (well worth the 12 bucks a year for all the technical break downs). After completely tearing out the passenger side of the engine compartment. I removed the pump. PLASTIC TINES???? there were peices of plastic everywhere. Fortunately the new pump has brass tines. 3 long evenings worth of work... some scraiped knuckles and a lot of swearing and I'm finally done. What a pain. Why would any company be so stupid as to use plastic on any important engine component that metal could be used for.

2 things left to say...1. If your thermostat goes out... just use one for a chevy 350. 2. If I even meet the idiot who thought plastic tines was a good idea I'm gonna kick his/her teeth in.

and if