2nd Gen (09-10) 1.8L Water Pump Issue and Remediation

[BaseWhiteVibe]

Hey guys, just wanted to give you an update on my water pump. As many of you may know I have a 09 Vibe with the 1.8L engine. The original Stamped Steel water pump is prone to nothing but problems. It has two major failure modes A) Makes a lot of noise and then seizes or B) Leaks coolant from the bearing and it goes all over the pulley and the side of the engine in addition to making the engine sound like it has lifter tick!

Well I started doing my research and what I learned will save you guys (or people surfing the net) TONS of Money! So Aisin is the OEM supplier to Toyota (Toyota owns Aisin). So this NEW pump (Aisin WPT-140) will save you money and is exactly the same as Toyota Part Number: 1610039466 (16100-39466) and the ACDelco part number (252-928). The casting on the Toyota, ACDELCO and Aisin part are the same. The Toyota part says "TOYOTA AISIN" on it, however the ACDELCO and the Aisin parts have that name ground off by hand BUT you can see part of the name under the pulley. In place of the ground off name they put an Aisin sticker on it. ANOTHER BONUS with buying this part is that it already comes with a gasket and three new bolts! If you order the part from either the GM or Toyota dealer it WILL NOT include the new bolts (BOTTOM THREE MUST BE REPLACED) or the gasket. I had my mechanic install the pump since it is cold out and I didn't want to deal with it! In addition since it was installed by a mechanic the warranty does apply, the warranty as listed is 10,000KM or 6,250 Miles or 12 months from installation date. The pulley on the new pump sits on a heavy duty NSK bearing and it spins nice and is tight! My OLD water pump was leaking and was loud as hell, the noise it made was similar to that of lifter tick! When this new part was installed I couldn't believe how much quieter my engine became! I honestly thought that my engine was just loud by design or that it was ready to take a dump! My engine literally is about 5 times quieter! If anyone has any questions please let me know. If your 09-10 Vibe 1.8L needs a new water pump then you MUST go with the Aisin part!

NOW I did take a look at the old part closely and made a few observations. When I removed the plastic cover from the pulley you could see that the coolant seeped through the bearing and was coming out of the holes. The fluid would then make leak out of the plastic cover and then it would pool on the pulley and leak on the belt (causing a squeak on start up). When you look under the hood you can see coolant on the pulley and on spots around the engine.

In conclusion by purchasing the Aisin WPT-140 you will get everything you need to do the install and have the proper heavy duty part

Well I hope that this helps! Take care folks!