[woodman]

Mike, a word of warning. Last year I had to change the water pump three times! The old one was getting noisy, so I changed it for a new one from Brookhouse while I was doing another job. After running the engine for about 20 minutes, the bearing on the new pump went. Exchanged it for another one from Brookhouse, that one only ran for 5 minutes before the bearing went. Simon obviously refunded, but I said I didn't want another from the same supplier. I found an NOS one on ebay that was a different make (I forget what), fitted that and it's been fine ever since (about 4,000-5,000 miles).

I trust Brookhouse in principle, and they're so knowledgeable and helpful, but the parts are only as good as the suppliers, and over the years I've bought many duff parts from there which have had a major impact in terms of time and labour cost of repeating jobs. I would say that sub-standard parts are the main cause of unreliability with my car. Mainly water pumps, alternators and anything made of rubber. Plus a new piston that cracked and damaged a recently rebuilt engine. In each case, I've ended up figuring out alternative solutions. I imported an alternator from the USA, found a water pump on ebay, and generally I avoid buying things made of rubber and choose polyurethane options wherever possible.

At the very least, try and get as much information off the new water pump as you can before you fit it, so that if it does let you down you can make sure you replace it with one that isn't the same make or batch.