water pump/thermostat brands
 

Thinking of replacing water pump, thermostat and belt on 04 boxster. In checking prices, they are all over the board from very reasonable to utterly absurd (porsche brand from dealer ). Has anyone used brands other than porsche and what are your experiences. For instance, I have used gates belts for 40 years and they make a great product for other cars : are porsche belts really worth twice the price of a gates belt? The same with thermostats : there are german mfgs that sell them for half as much as porsche.
Also are there any feelings about metal versus plastic impellers on the pumps? thanks for any input.

Do a quick search, topics have been covered "Ad nauseam".......

General concensus seems to be to use ONLY Porsche OEM WP. Many use a low temp thermostat, but there is much controversy and difference of opinion on the thermostat issue. Read up on it.

Laso Pump Part#LAS1816418
Porsche Pierburg Pump Part# 99610601155
Porsche Genuine Part#99610601156

Personally i wouldnt pay the extra money for the genuine pump... the others are all good as well. I seen a lot of the plastic impellers that VW uses break after 5 or 6 years and the new replacement ones are all metal. As far as I know the Laso pump and the genuine pump for the 986 are still ABS composite impellers... not sure what the Pierburg pump has...

H

Check the Pelican Parts site under water cooling. This will get you started

Pelican offers both a 'genuine' Porsche water pump as well as an OEM water pump. They differ in price by about $100. On the same page you will find different temperature thermostats.

At the very least, you'll see the Porsche part number and be able to do a web search for other sources.

Suncoast Porsche has the pumps for around $278.00. You can get the low temps from Pelican, just get the lower cost ones, the LMS version is the exact same thing.