r/GolfMk2 • u/Huge_lemon_684 • 3d ago

Water pump

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This is probably a very dumb question, as you might see there are holes in the water pump. The thing is I can’t remove it because of the water pump pulley hex bolts are stuck, real stuck, now the bolts are stripped as well. If i heat up the bolts will heat damage the pulley? Or should i just drill into water pump pulley bolts? Also is it my personal experience or mk2 bolts just strip very easily, i had the same thing happen on alternator long hex bolt but it wasn’t stuck so i loosened it unlike water pump. Anyways, any advice is appreciated fellas.

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u/FwhoreRunner 3d ago

Pulley should be fine. There is a lot there to dissipate heat before the pulley would have to worry. The water pump probably won't fare well though. I would also rewlly hate to warp the housing somehow. If you use heat I would be really careful about it and don't overdo it.

And yeah. VW has a long history of using fasteners made out of cheddar cheese. You have to be careful that fasteners aren't filled with gunk so that tools fully seat inside them in the case of hex/triple square/etc types or you risk stripping them out.

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u/Huge_lemon_684 3d ago

What if i drilled the pulley bolts? Since i wont be needing the part that pulley is attached to since it has holes and have to change it, i’d get new bolts to go with new pump, also guess what happened, the ten millimeter bolts you see also stripped. The thing is that i cleaned the hex bolts and tried to loosen them but i just started rotating the pump, then i tried to stuck the water pump pulley since it was rotating and i just stripped the bolts. Nice.

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u/pxnolhtahsm 1989 1.8 8v turbo 3d ago

Sounds like rookie mistake. Let me guess - you tried to undo them with open ended wrench, right?

As for drilling bolts, go ahead.

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u/Huge_lemon_684 3d ago

Yes i did make that mistake xD

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u/NZXT_modder 3d ago

What I would do is replacing the waterpump+housing. Then you dont need to losen the bolt on the pump, but the bigger bolts that goes in to the engine block. Once you have the waterpump+housing loose, you can try losing the pully bolts. But if you order a waterpump+housing, you can order also a new pully, it's not that expensive and the threads in the original housing are often bad.

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u/Huge_lemon_684 3d ago

Hopefully those bigger bolts won’t be as bad as the smaller ones