Two years ago when our car had 100K miles and we were replacing the timing belt we got a new water pump from Swedish Engineering and had it installed. Yesterday after parking in a lot and doing some shopping we returned to the car with a puddle of coolant underneath and an obvious opening around the water pump.

Does Swedish Engineering sell actual Volvo branded parts? Since the orignal lasted 10 years and 100K miles and was only replaced as preventative maintenance, and the new one lasted 2 years and 25K miles I don't want to go the same route again. If the replacement was not Volvo, I will go with a Volvo pump given the excellent performance of the original. If the replacement was a Volvo part, then I will go with an aftermarket under the assumption that the Volvo part is not what is used to be. Or maybe it was just bad luck and either route will be fine.

My experience has been that the aftermarket pumps have a plastic like o ring for the top that tends to crack and leak after a couple of years. The Volvo o ring is a rubber material that tends to last 10 or more years. If you use the cheaper pump make sure you get the volvo gasket and seals. I would just get the Volvo pump which also has a better designed and different material impeller than the aftermarket ones. You get what you pay for. A good pump is key to good cooling, why fool around for a few $'s. Cars are too expensive to cut corners and possibly ruin.

I had a seized water pump and needed my brick back on the road. The water pump was replaced a few years back as preventive maintenace. The pump from the volvo dealer was $75. Anyway, I've heard good reports of the HEPU ones available online, but I definitely would make sure it was a HEPU or Volvo pump.
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Paul NW Indiana '89 740 Turbo 128,000

Swedish Engineering is an excellent first-rate outfit and sometimes then can save you money. They should know what works as they have a very loyal following and it would be very foolish for them to use parts that don't meet the grade. I was in Ann Arbor yesterday and they helped me with some used hinges for my 940. The place was packed to the gills with cars...they have a dozen or more bays and sell used and new parts. Corky is the owner, I believe, and he is very hands-on and visible in the shop.

That having said, the VOLVO OEM water pump is superb. As are the gasket sets they use. And as simple as it is to install a water pump there are about "fifty" things (of course I am exaggerating) you can do wrong that result in a leak. The HEPU pumps have beautiful finish and appearance, as well as GMB, and there many on the brickboard that would swear by them.

In 2005 I bought a very inexpensive pump at Auto Zone (on a SUNDAY) and it works perfectly. In fact the Auto Zone pump has a lifetime warranty. By the way, basically all the 230 engines use the same pump (200, 700 and 900 series 4-cyl cars) so the pump model is very common.

If I had my choice I would always go OEM, but sometimes the cost is a huge decision factor, as is availability. Even if you are buying a part made by the manufacturer that claims to be the OEM for Volvo, the Volvo-branded part is still manufactured to a higher performance standard. Don't kid yourself, Volvo goes to great efforts to make sure the parts are reliable. They test them and monitor quality. It costs them money if parts fail. The aftermarket parts are driven by different factors. Some are good, but some are not good.

That is one reason we are so fortunate to have this forum....

This is what has worked for me. Dump a bottle of barrs leak, not the silver bottle but the one that looks like a cho. shake. It should take care of it. I just passed 548,000 miles on my 93, 940. I know what works if anyone wants to dispute it.

Lane

"I know what works if anyone wants to dispute it."

Well, okay, since you want an argument, here it goes... :-)

If you have a leak then you have seals, gaskets and/or hoses somewhere in the system that need to be replaced.

Why bandage a problem when you can fix it? Particularly if it is something as simple and straightforward to repair as a leak between the block and the water pump? 548,000 miles is impressive and your car is old, but still not as old as many on the Brick Board. Whatever you are bandaging with Barr's Leak may eventually fail and cause serious/expensive engine damage.

Are you concerned about Barr's Leak gumming up the coolant passages in the motor?

there are three area`s where this pump can leak, the pump mating surface, large o-ring/ dougnut or the input shaft seal. The shaft seal will not work with barrs leak but the other two will work fine. I`m not a prof. mechanic(a sales rep) but I have worked on cars, boats and aircraft. I have used this stuff and it works. I just changed my coolant a few months back and I removed the thermostat to do a good flush and the head looked clean. I also have a bmw 850i V-12,now, I would not use it in this car because all of the sensors. One more story. I bought the car new in 1993 and in 94 I was already out of warrenty, well the head developed a small coolant leak and I did not want to take on the job at the time (I was a 1 car man then) the dealer wanted over $1000 +/- some for the repair someone told me about this stuff so I poured and held breath and I stoped leaking. That was about 450k miles ago. I really am sold on the stuff. Also everyone told me I was crazy changing oil at 15-20k, nothing has happened. I`m not $hit`n you! Be safe.

Regards,
Lane

Before you get too worried about your water pump I would take a close look at where exactly the coolant is coming from, there are two seals that are prone to failure. 1. top of the water pump to the head is a donut seal, you should just see a small rubber ring there without any separation in it. 2. a ring of rubber in the back of the pump that seals the metal line to the heater, just inboard of the lower rad. hose connection. Both can be a little tricky to get a good seal when replacing the pump, the good news is that a new water pump gasket kit that contains the mounting gasket and both the seals can be had for a few dollars.
Hope this helps.

The shop said it was the 0-ring which is I think the donut seal you were refering to. They recommended a new water pump because of the amount of labor involved in fixing the o-ring you might as well put a new pump on since the pump itself is not very expensive.

I suppose if I were paying a shop to do the labor I might look at it the same way you do, for me it would be the same amount of time and the difference would be the $50 or so for the new pump, or $3 for a gasket set.