# 2003 VW Jetta Overheating **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Tags:** jetta, volkswagen\ **Created:** [July 21, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-vw-jetta-overheating/80459 "2013-07-21T17:50:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Big\_Marc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9d8465/32.png) [@Big\_Marc](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Big_Marc)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-vw-jetta-overheating/80459/21 "2013-08-13T17:21:40Z")
did you do the timing belt ?with the water pump ---
**Author:** ![Kashka11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2acd7d/32.png) [@Kashka11](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Kashka11)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 6:30am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-vw-jetta-overheating/80459/22 "2013-08-14T06:30:00Z")
yep…i haven’t put everything back up yet. My engine mount bracket needs to be re-thread and i need a new bolt for the mount also. ---
**Author:** ![George\_San\_Jose1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e5b9ba/32.png) [@George\_San\_Jose1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/George_San_Jose1)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 6:45am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-vw-jetta-overheating/80459/23 "2013-08-14T06:45:45Z")
I’ve seen several complaints here about the plastic water pump impellers. I’m guessing this was an experiment the manufacturer’s are doing, to reduce weight. Apparently the downside may be reduced reliability. ---
**Author:** ![db4690](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/db4690/32/2583_2.png) [@db4690](https://community.cartalk.com/u/db4690)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 7:18am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-vw-jetta-overheating/80459/24 "2013-08-14T07:18:50Z")
I think BMW also used plastic water pump impellers . . . and also suffered the consequences ---
**Author:** ![asemaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@asemaster](https://community.cartalk.com/u/asemaster)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 7:41am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-vw-jetta-overheating/80459/25 "2013-08-14T07:41:46Z")
Plastic water pump impellers have been around for at least 15 years. I’ve seen them on VW, BMW, Ford, Cadillac, and I’m sure others as well. Steel rusts away, plastic cracks, sometimes things just break. ---
**Author:** ![ok4450](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ok4450](https://community.cartalk.com/u/ok4450)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 8:54am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-vw-jetta-overheating/80459/26 "2013-08-14T08:54:20Z")
Plastic impellers = stupid. Just another example of short-sighted engineering and/or cost cutting moves. Like most examples it did what it was supposed to do; survive the warranty period… ---
**Author:** ![George\_San\_Jose1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e5b9ba/32.png) [@George\_San\_Jose1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/George_San_Jose1)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 5:22am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-vw-jetta-overheating/80459/27 "2013-08-15T05:22:03Z")
Plastic water pump impellers seem like a bad idea for cars. But I could be wrong. Maybe the reliability tests show plastic impellers to be as reliable as metal ones. Plastic certainly seems like it has the advantage of less corrosion w/water. But all the forces and jostling a water pump impeller experiences, that seems problematic to me, an admitted novice on the science of materials. I can say the impeller on my 1977 Hoover upright carpet vacuum I purchased for $35 new was made of some kind of heavy duty plastic like material. Bakelite I think. That vacuum served me with no problem at all, worked like new until just last year, when one day the impeller exploded. Pieces went everywhere. That’s how I found out what it was made of. 35 years of trouble free operation, followed by an impeller failure, well, I have no complaints. If they had a junkyard for vacuum cleaners, I’d have gone there and got a replacement impeller off a junker. I took an old clothes dryer apart to see if that impeller would work, but it was too big. But it was made of the same stuff. An impeller is a complicated piece to machine out of metal, they probably make it in a mold when they make it in plastic, that’s another advantage. ---
**Author:** ![db4690](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/db4690/32/2583_2.png) [@db4690](https://community.cartalk.com/u/db4690)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 6:30am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-vw-jetta-overheating/80459/28 "2013-08-15T06:30:32Z")
Bakelite is actually a very early, and high quality, plastic 35 years is not bad at all ---
**Author:** ![ok4450](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ok4450](https://community.cartalk.com/u/ok4450)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 6:42am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-vw-jetta-overheating/80459/29 "2013-08-15T06:42:11Z")
Things are made out of injection molded plastic because it’s cheaper; not necessarily better. Bakelite holds up extremely well and it could be that the vacuum impeller disentegrated because the vacuum inhaled something at one time that caused a tiny fracture. Eventually the fracture goes wild… [Previous page](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-vw-jetta-overheating/80459.md?page=1)