Who makes the original Porsche water pumps?
 

With all the controversy about the reliability of original Porsche versus aftermarket water pumps I'd like to know which manufacturers make the "original " Porsche pumps. Many distributors shade the truth and hint that theirs are oem and it is hard to tell. Does anyone know what brands are used by Porsche? I know they do not manufacture their own.

Just buy a Porsche OEM waterpump from Sunset Porsche for about $300. It's not that hard. Order today, have it early next week.

#1 on Flavor 987S. You're just wasting $ is you think you're saving money trying to be cheap.

Thanks for the advice, but that doesn't answer my question. I have looked at various Porsche dealers parts websites and they don't seem to even want to tell you who the manufacturer is. I want to know who makes the ones that came on the car originally. Not trying to be cheap, just want to know that I am getting what I need.

Why would any businessman/women disclose this proprietary information? Silly to assume they would. Do you tell your customer where you source all your stuff? Go buy a pump from Sunset or Suncoast and be done with it.

Actually, your question is a bit more transparent than that. If you want to be sure you are getting the OEM pump, simply buy it from a dealer; problem solved.

Look on the Pelican Parts site. It often indicates who was the OEM.

sound like a good question to me but Flat6 have posted here that none are really long-lasting and should be tossed out regardless of mileage every THREE YEARS. I recall something along the lines that building a stout one from billet would be the only way to make a superior one but that the price point is too high. It seems that the market will always underestimate the key role of the wp in engine failures. Probably because so few actual deal with these post mortem, if you visit a Porsche dealer they'll tell you Porsche engines never fail.

The thing tha stuck with me was that Raby said that had everyone changed their water pumps at the 3 year interval they wouldn't be in the m96 tearing apart business. My take on that was that IMSB is overblown and putting off wp replacements under-discussesd.

In other words, buy'em by the dozen...and not off the back of a truck.

When I go to McDonald's today, I'll ask the cashier who makes your Big Mac special sauce.:)

you don't want to know where ANYTHING in that place comes from.
Just eat it and hope it exits your system as quickly as possible.
So the waterpump/Big Mac analogy is a good one.

I withdraw the question. I can't believe that no one else considers this a reasonable question, and that no one seems to know the answer or even care. The thought seems to be that as long as a dealer sells it for $300 to $400 it's the best there is regardless of the manufacturer, but beware of everyone else. Just like saying my doctor says I need brain surgery and that's all I need to know, don't ask any other questions. I have seen doctors, lawyers, car dealers and people in all other walks of life that are dumb as a box of rocks and I see no reason not to get all the information I can before I make decisions.

I totally agree with you on this! Why not try to find the information??? If you can find the same part from the same manufacture why wouldn't you???

I would agree with your doctor on this one. :)

First of all, Porsche uses more than one supplier. Secondly, for the most part, these OEM pumps are often hard to find in the aftermarket (read at retail level). Thirdly, a lot of aftermarket vendors, Pelican included, state their parts are OEM when they clearly are not. So your probability of finding the correct manufacturer's unit at a better price than you can get from a Porsche dealer like Sunset are small to none; an exercise in futility..........

Yep - I wouldn't have chewed your head off for asking personally, unless of course there was history and you'd pi55ed me off in the past, but the answer is difficult really... They use many different suppliers for lots of things one being pumps. I'd need your vin and a load of PI work to find out exactly which was yours...

WITHOUT chewing your head off... My advice is the same as everyone else's! Buy OEM. :-)

agree with mountain
 

We know which companies supply oem wipers, wheels, radios, engine mgmt systems, ACs, and pretty much everything else on these cars. Given its critical role and the highly rumored superiority of oem over aftermarket waterpumps, I would like to know just who the heck the oem suppliers are. Oem suppliers and even specs will often change over time, confusing matters more. Only if we know the actual manufacturers can we hope to tease out myth from reality and have a meaningful discussion about the lifespan of this part.
Saying "just pay the dealer and don't worry about it" is counter to the whole notion of having forums such as this, whose role is to promote the free exchange of information for the education and benefit of the entire community.
If you don't have knowledge to share but still feel the need to get your voice heard, at least try not to discount a valid question for the lack of something useful to communicate. These kind of questions give value to the forum...

That is exactly my point. If The dealer is likely to be selling any one of a half dozen different brands how do I know I'm not getting some Chinese knockoff. Everyone jumps to price when I am trying to find a reliable manufacturer that will last 3 or 4 years so I don't have to go to the trouble of changing it again in a few months. If I knew which manufacturers Porsche uses for their factory builds then I feel like I am getting the best part I can. I don't want to replace an unreliable part because the labor on these cars is not a small thing. If I buy a pump from the dealer and It goes bad and they replace the part I am still going to have to do the labor again. Doesn't it make sense to be sure that the dealer is selling you a factory recommended part instead of something you can buy on ebay for half what the dealer charges. Forget the price, I am interested in getting the best possible part and I see no reason why I shouldn't know that it was made in a reliable factory somewhere in Germany rather than a sweatshop in Taiwan. After all, I am paying the high price for it and doing the labor, so I am entitled to know where it came from. After all we all have our favorite brand of tirea, or oil or filters, etc that we are partial to, why just go to a dealer and say give me a water pump like if he sells it it has to be the best. No one I know goes in to a tire store and says put on any tire you want to because it will automatically be the best because you sold it to me.

There are only two suppliers to my knowledge, and their units are only available through Porsche's parts distribution network, you rarely see them in the aftermarket, and even then they are more expensive than going direct. We a buy our units through Porsche, and they come in appropriate marked OEM packaging. In all the years we have been doing this, we have only ever had a few new units quickly fail, and Porsche replaced them without question; but new part failures are nothing new when using just about any OEM, from Hyundai to Ferrari, so they are a fact of life and are going to happen.

And as for buying one of flea bay, well you run some real risks there. We have had customers come to us with supposed new "OEM" water pumps in Porsche packaging they got online, only to find that when we brought out a real one, it was instantly obvious that everything (including the packaging) was a cheap knock off.

If you want to save some money and get the real deal, watch for Sunset and other lager Porsche parts dealers to have sales, which they do a couple times a year. When they do, buy the real thing and throw it on the shelf; it is one of the way we save money on inventory without sacrificing the part's quality.

It's really simple. All your concerns are addressed already. Buy the OEM water pump from Sunset or Suncoast for about $300. Done. Order from Phil Coy at Sunset today (503-641-8600). I don't even talk to Phil anymore, I just send an email to philcoy@****************************************************.com. He keeps my credit card on file. Takes me less than 90 seconds to order parts. He'll ship it today. You'll have it by Wednesday. What's so hard?

Do you want my old 987S water pump? Looks good as new. $100 and I'll throw in shipping. If it fails within 1-year, I'll refund your money.:)

OEM and OES are different. Unless a pump has the "Porsche P" stamped on it, we don't use it.

If people were more concerned with quality, and understood value; rather than just the cheapest price, we'd sell our parts. Thats not the case.

Jake, do you know what manufacturers have the "Porsche P' stamped on their pumps? Is there any manufacturer's info other than Porsche p. I have called 2 dealers parts departments and they have no idea what they are selling. I am concerned with quality and that is the reason I am looking for more info, so I can be sure I am getting it.

The OEM one's at Sunset. Did you call Phil Coy yet?

As a matter of fact I did and they have no idea who manufactures the pump they sell, only that it is stamped made in france. Is that more OEM than one made in china? He said it is definitely not the manufacturer that made the one that came on the car. It appears that you are also buying a pig in a poke like the rest of us and thinking you are getting OEM.

I really like that diet Coke product. I'm going to call into Atlanta, and see if I can find out who supplies the nutmeg and cinnamic aldehyde.:)

Except that for the occasional "out of the box" dud, they go in and seem to last, and more importantly do not have metal impellers.

Very few dealer parts departments can tell you anything about who makes any part, or even what country they originate from; they just place an order in the OEM's parts distribution computer network and wait for the part to show up.

The Differences Between OE OEM and OES Parts

Mountainman, what line of work are you in? Do you tell your customers who your vendors are?

It has been my experience that anyone who makes a quality product that they can be proud of and stand behind are not ashamed to put their name on it. Would you buy a tire with no name, or a car or anything else. Why a waterpump? I have owned several businesses and have never sold anything with no name on it. I like to know what I am buying and that was the whole point of this post, not to find a cheaper product or another vendor who wants to sell his product. I want to know who made the water pump that Porsche used when they assembled the engine in their factory. Why is that so difficult to understand?

Here my opinion for what it worth and I'll probably get slammed for it. Porsche will sell you an OE water pump with the same flaw yours has, and then for parts sale, warrant it for 90 days. Auto Zone Napa and others sell you a quality part and warrant it for 10 year half the cost. Most of those are being made the same place your new US car pump is made Mexico, China, and Korea.

it's not difficult to understand, but you seem to have difficulty understanding that porsche does not release that information. and i dare say part of the agreement the MFGs have with porsche, is that they do not release the information either. their customer is porsche, not you or i.

there is a name on the part, and that name is porsche.

Never mind. I'm staying out of this one :p

I don't know who actually is the OEM water pump supplier. Pelican Parts suggests it's Pierburg. Maybe the P stamp on the part stands for Pierburg not Porsche. Just saying...

that might make more sense to me if there were not dozens of other components in a Porsche with the manufcturers name and logo on them. Why is the water pump a secret

When you owned these businesses, did you tell your current and potential customers where to purchase competitive goods & services?

Sounds silly, right?

But, that's what you want the Porsche parts department to do.

He's not asking for a competitor. He's asking about the OE manufacturer so that he can make sure that he gets the right one. I'm sorry, but you're being completely ridiculous about the whole thing. There's nothing wrong with ensuring that you're actually getting OE parts. Just because a company says that a product is OE does not necessarily mean that it is. Humans do this thing called lying ;)

It was a perfectly valid question. Why are you taking it so personal?

Porsche, like many businesses, uses private labels for its parts to support the high prices (and margins) charged by dealers. It's simply a business strategy that either works or it doesn't. If the OEM supplier becomes known, then the strategy becomes less successful.

I agree with many posters that buying genuine Porsche parts is appropriate for critical parts where the consequences of a parts failure is especially costly to the owner. My own view is that the water pump is one of those critical parts.

That said, others may have a different risk calculus than me. If they want to take the risk and buy from an OEM part from a source other than Porsche, I see it entirely reasonable for them to ask fellow forum members if they know the name of the water pump OEM.

Just for my two cents worth, before you try Pelican Parts, Suncoast, etc. see if your local Porsche dealer provides a discount for PCA membership. If so, join the PCA and then go to your dealer and buy the parts. It surprised me to find that my dealer was able to underbid both the above parts suppliers with my PCA discount. I joined for two years and have already recouped my membership fee. Plus I get a free magazine in the mail! :)

Of course, your dealer may not offer the same price point, so YMMV.

PS: The only non OEM parts (aside from sound system) I've bought to date are low temperature thermostat, spark plugs, and spark plug tubes. I just finished a complete wter pump replacement. LT thermostat, and hose replacement. So far, I'm happy with the results and what I paid for it.

Since Jake buys these all the time and seems to be as specific as you about what he buys, why not buy it from him? Or, why hasn't Jake posted the exact brand and sku of the part he uses with the P on it?

I think the question in perfectly legitimate and now I would like to know as well.

^ This could potentially backfire, namely because this is the internet. Word spreads quickly.

either way, the wp as a critical part, should be changed with a certain regularity, much like critical commercial jet parts. You see how few jets go down given the millions of flights that are boarded? They don't wait for things to break. They're tossed well before they come remotely close to failing because they must protect things that much more expensive to replace than a $300 part.

We have noted at least 3 different suppliers of water pumps. We buy them direct from Porsche and don't complain about the cost.

The pumps are different, not just re-branded.

That said, we change all pumps every 3 years, no matter the mileage. I just sent letters out to our engine purchasers from 2011 as a reminder to change their water pumps.

I am not big on OEM Porsche parts like most people are, in fact I'd love it if we had every part for our engines made in our network. The water pumps are worth the extra money.

As for "competition", well I took my parts store offline last year and don't care if we ever sell another component. I develop, someone else can sell it. Selling parts is boring and any keyboard warrior can do it.

All we sell is engines, built primarily from our own developed components.