Replacing water-pump in 1992 Opel Rekord 380i CD V6

I recently replaced the water-pump in my 1992 Opel Rekord 380i CD V6. The agent didn’t have stock but said they could order for R1800. This I thought was daylight robbery and so respectfully declined their generous offering.

I then decided to see if I could find a replacement part online. Little did I know at the beginning of this that the engineering sensibility of motor manufacturers had been overridden by the sales & marketing department. Nearly every car engine has a unique water-pump, there are thousands upon thousands of different shapes, sizes and drive configurations. So much for man’s genius, he turns a simple device for moving water into another way to fleece the customer.

Needless to say I couldn’t find a code for my car. So I decided to remove the pump and take it to the spares dealers to see if I could find a part. I tried a couple of spares dealers without success and eventually left it with a dealer to see what they could match up.

At the same time I found a seller on bidorbuy (met10) who said he had the right pump. Now I was a little sceptical, I mean the local boys couldn’t find the “right” pump and they had mine to compare with.

Anyway I thought I’ll give the local boys a chance to see what they come up with. Well a week later I was left holding the water-pump. Oh, yes I had also given the local boys the GMB code from the bidorbuy seller to make it asy for them but they said that code did not exist on their system.

So finally I had to take the gamble and see what met10 could deliver. I paid the R495 + R90 courier fee for a total of R585.

Part arrived and was exactly what I wanted, a really well made after-market, you could call it a rip-off – meaning copy, but the joke is that Opel is the real rip-off.

I installed it with ease after deciding not to use silicon but rather old fashioned grease to hold the paper gasket in place.

GMB Part No.: GWG59A