new 850 water pump —FCP or Volvo?

Post by **JimBee** » 02 Jul 2011, 17:17

I haven't seen a post on this for a while. My '93 850 has 160k. The belt was changed around 150 before I owned it and I checked it last summer at high 150's, still looks new. The seller I bought if from though, told me, "I don't know if the water pump was changed." Is it panic time on the water pump? Likewise, the rollers. I have no way of knowing if anything other than the belt was replaced.
What's an owner to do?

Post by **jblackburn** » 02 Jul 2011, 17:34

The water pump isn't as critical of an item as the tensioners. Water pumps will easily last til 210k; tensioners must be changed every other timing belt change.

Post by **jblackburn** » 02 Jul 2011, 17:35

Oh, and by your title? Hepu is a perfectly acceptable replacement to the OEM Aisin pump.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 02 Jul 2011, 17:36

Based on experience I have had water pumps that have been from bad to horrible at both the 140 k and absolutely horrible at the 210k interval. As such, I am an "every-other" timing belt change kinda guy on everything including the water pump.

Many will tell that it is unnecessary unless they are leaking and they may be right but my pumps were falling apart internally and had no external leaks.

You pays your money and you takes your chances,

I have purchased the Hepu replacements from FCP and they have been just fine, no problems whatsoever.

...Lee

Post by **JimBee** » 02 Jul 2011, 20:01

Thanks, gentlemen of the wrench

. I think I'm going to change it and won't need to think about again. How about the roller kit and tensioners from FCP, also o.k.?

trtvolvo · Post by **trtvolvo** » 02 Jul 2011, 20:23

I just bought the Hepu pump (and belts/rollers/etc.) from IPD - but, so far they look nice sitting on the bench, not yet in the car...

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 03 Jul 2011, 06:21

Be very careful with the FCP "OEM" tensioner roller. Both of them that I have bought from them would bind to the face of the block when I torqued them down. They also cause the belt to track at the edge or even over the edge of the cam pulleys.

On the both of those that I bought from FCP I wound up just removing the new roller itself and installed it back on my old original casting to get things to work correctly.

For that part I only buy official Blue Box Volvo parts now.

...Lee

Post by **pkc303** » 03 Jul 2011, 15:37

We go with IPD parts. Working fine so far.

Post by **erikv11** » 03 Jul 2011, 16:03

Just going with the parts from a specific vendor doesn't really tell you anything - you need to determine who the manufacturer is for each part. The manufacturer composition of the parts in the "IPD kit" or "FCP kit" will change over time.

gilhuly · Post by **gilhuly** » 04 Jul 2011, 10:40

As Lee said, water pumps have a meaningful chance of failure from 140+ in my experience. I had a pump in a car with 145k come in absolutely falling apart and grinding with the timing belt half walked off the pulley and cutting through the cover. It was a Hepu (what I have in my car) so it was probably only 70k mi old. That having been said I haven't heard of or seen other Hepus give it up like that. The pumps will make some noise before giving out generally.