DIY of the Water Pump Assembly/Housing

Hi all, first post here. I own an 09 Boxster S and today found that the lower drive belt tensioner bracket snapped off during my last track day and is only staying in place due to contact tension with the belt itself, causing excess wear on the belt. The car is driving normally, the only symptom was a screeching noise on cold starts. I determined that the metal piece behind the tensioner is part of the water pump assembly, but it seems like most people do not have to replace that as part of water pump/thermostat. Has anyone done this replacement, or should I just have a shop take care of it? Getting it looked at next week. I can get this assembly for $550 but replacing it seems like it will be a huge job, more than the water pump/thermostat job. The part number for the assembly is 9A1-106-038-09. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

This is a first for Planet-9, at least in my memory. The chunk that broke off is part of the water pump? Or part of the water pump mounting plate (that the water-pump mounts on)? Without a diagram/drawing of some sort it's a bit hard to say what broke based on your photos. Perhaps if you can do a screen capture of an illustration from the parts catalog and tell us what part it is - we can give a better answer. Doing the coolant isn't terribly hard IF you're smart and you buy a vacuum lift tool to help fill it up. Without that tool, you'll spend hours trying to get all the air out of the system. With the tool - as soon as it was filled, it was completely full, no top-up afterward needed. And Welcome to Planet-9. I see this was your first posting, and you posted it in the correct place! Cool! Now - two things: Please visit: https://www.planet-9.com/forums/new_members/ and introduce yourself and your 987. Photos are always welcome! Then visit: https://www.planet-9.com/threads/posting-photos-in-posts-to-planet-9.253974/ - we prefer photos be included in the message body, not as click-thru attachments. Yours are attachments because they're full size high-resolution photos. Fine for people with 100GB streaming service, but someone on a phone in an iffy location with a weak signal - not so much. Meanwhile, Welcome to Planet-9, the Friendly Porsche Forum! Where new members often arrive with a problem, and leave with a community.

Deilenberger, I believe that the water pump is mounted directly into the block, and if this is correct, then the broken bracket is part of the block.. but a good aluminum welder should be able to weld back the broken eyelet into his position. The trick part would be to do it through the front engine inspection cover

Not correct in this case. On the .2 engines the waterpump mounts to a waterpump mounting plate that bolts to the front of the engine. The .2 engines are superior in many ways to the earlier engines, and that's one of them. Since the mounting plate can be replaced - a failed pump doesn't destroy the block as it could on the .1 engines. It just destroys that mounting plate. I found an exploded parts view - based on the PN the OP provided.. it shows the mounting plate, but only has it available as part of a complete water pump assembly.. The PN he gave includes everything in this image. It seems to sell on various Porsche parts sites for around $560. https://www.gaudinporscheparts.com/oem-parts/porsche-water-pump-assembly-9a110603809 BTW - the OP came, revisited, and hasn't posted since then. I hope he does return so we can hear the resolution to his problem. The big question in my mind is - can that mounting plate be replaced with the engine in the car or not... I do know who to ask (a mechanic I use who primarily works on 987 race cars..) but if the OP isn't interested I'm not going to bother Max with the question.

I assumed that it was a M97 engine , when the OP's P/N clearly says 9A1 part.. These are great news as he could have the broken piece welded into the water pump bracket out of the car. I usually get great prices from Luke at Sunset Porsche Parts in OR.

Thanks for the warm welcome and the valuable information. To clarify, the chunk that broke off is part of the water pump mounting plate. I do see that the assembly is available on many porsche parts sites for around that price you mentioned, and I agree the big question for me is how much do I have to take out to replace this mounting plate, which is something I'll hopefully get an answer for after I take it to a specialist this Friday for diagnosis and a quote. I have a copy of the workshop manual and one of the guides WM 195919 REMOVING AND INSTALLING COOLANT DISTRIBUTOR HOUSING (UNIT CARRIER) includes removing this mounting plate to get to this coolant distributor housing. The pre-work says to remove pretty much all of the accessory pulleys/pumps including the crankshaft pulley. The guide is for removing a different part so I am hoping just accessing this mounting plate is not as involved. I think I will definitely have to remove the engine mount/carrier and loosen the two large coolant pipes underneath but really hoping I do not have to remove any of the other accessory pulleys/pumps, especially the crankshaft pulley. @deilenberger appreciate the offer to asking your friend, I would certainly be interested in his expert opinion on the best way to replace this piece if it's not too much hassle for you.

I opened the car back up to see if I could figure out what generally needs to be removed in order to replace this housing piece and here's what I think: Remove engine mount/carrier Remove two large coolant pipes underneath the engine mount Remove crankshaft pulley Remove plastic coolant connection pipe that covers the housing (see screenshot below) -Disconnect thermostat housing and lower coolant hard pipe (see screenshot below) So it doesn't look like a massive amount of work and I'm hoping the specialist quote will be reasonable enough to just let them do it.

I've heard back from Max: So - be interesting to hear what your shop has to say. Max wrenches on 987's about on a daily basis, and sometimes in conditions where there is a lot counting on the results (race-time).. IMHO - you've heard from possibly the best source in the US.. Provost Motorsports, Bordentown, NJ USA. I highly recommend them. No one else (except me) touches my Boxster.

I build a low cost shade tree mechanic engine support that allows you to lower the engine a couple of inches to replace the water pump, front engine mount, etc., and holds the engine while removing the gearbox allowing you to have all the space you need to move underneath the engine/gearbox. I must paid less than $30 for all of the components at Home Depot , it is a crude design but works flawesly allowing you to lower and raise the engine by smoothly turning a nut, allowing small increments (the treads are lubricated with anti-seize), and you position the 4x2 on top of the strut towers PS: By lowering the engine, you will be able to remove the crank pulley bolt easy .

That is clever, great idea!

Very nice.. I took your image (which was huge) and resized it so it can be pasted directly into a posting without the user needing to click a link to see the image. I also adjusted contrast/brightness just a bit. The result is below. Please take the time to read https://www.planet-9.com/threads/posting-photos-in-posts-to-planet-9.253974/ ) a link for this appears at the top of every page on this forum.. It will give you some ideas about using images on a web forum. Here is the resized corrected image:

View attachment 299030 [/QUOTE] Thank you Don! I don't know how to manage the pictures using my phone.., I will look into from the PC

I got the quote from the shop, $1200 parts and $1800 labor at 225/hr. $1k of the parts is the water pump housing alone, part number 9A1-106-038-10, the rest various gaskets and o rings for the coolant system. Sounds like we were generally on the right track, they will have to drop the engine and remove the crankshaft pulley as well as several coolant distribution pipes to replace the housing. I think it's a doable job for a diy, but I have other things going on that preclude me from spending the time.

Picked up the car today. The shop suspects that maybe the tensioner shock was tightened too much and caused the broken bracket, but can't be 100% sure. The replacement did sound pretty involved, having to remove the front engine mount, crankshaft pulley, coolant and thermostat pipes, plus a few coolant and heater core pipes behind the housing plate. Even though the new part did come with the water pump reattached, they had to remove the water pump to install the plate and then re-install the water pump afterwards due to lack of space.