1.9 Diesel water pump change

[Pickard1]

Hi All,
I am new to the site. I am currently running around in a golf 1.9 diesel N/A estate. Before this I drove a Corrado G60 for 5 years

The golf has developed a water leak which appears to be coming from the water pump bearing, so i think a new pump is in order. 28ish quid from GSF seems reasonable....My question is this:

I have the Haynes manual for this car, this gives the job a full 4 spanners and says that you need to remove the power steering pump, alternator, alternator bracket, water pump housing, thermostat housing.....etc....

To me it looks like I can get the pump off just with the belts removed. I cant imagine a garage going through the rigmarole of the Haynes method....

Has anyone done this, can it be done without removing half of the engine ancillaries?
Cheers,
Dan

[zollaf]

you really want to change the water pump and the housing. if you attempt to remove just the pump, most of the bolts will snap, youll start swearing and end up having to get a new housing anyway. the housing is held on by 4 bolts, and you need to remove the thermostat housing from it as well, so you may as well treat it to a new one. i think you remove the alternator, but the whole job is not that involved, and should only take an hour or so. if you order a pump and housing from gsf they come already bolted together ready to fit.

[Pickard1]

GSF list the pumps below. Is it the top item, 17058A?

[zollaf]

i think thats right, and comes complete with the housing.

[Pickard1]

I did this job today. It took 3 hours, but that included an oil and filter change and also a break for a bacon sarnie! I think if you were organised you probably could do it in a little over an hour.

The pump was the top one from the list above. It comes with the water pump housing. I would recommend also ordering the plastic elbow and outlet while you are down there. Method was to remove the alternator and the alternator bracket. The pump then comes off easily.

My only problem is that the alternator belt now has an annoying squeak. I am guessing it is not tight enough, or too tight, which is strange as I thought the spring below the alternator self tensioned it.