What is the OEM brand sold by dealer for 99 ML 320 water pump?

MB has their OWN casting company..not available thru any aftermarket..only OE thru dealers.

However the interernals..like the bearing & seals are made by INA & at least 2 aftermarket water pump makers (Graf & Sil) use that bearing & seal assembly.

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MERCEDES Benz Master Guild Technician (6 TIMES)
ASE Master Technician
Mercedes Benz Star Technician (2 times)
44 years foreign automotive repair
27 Years M.B. Shop foreman (dealer)
MB technical information Specialist (15 years)
190E 2.3 16V ITS SCCA race car (sold)
1986 190E 2.3 16V 2.5 (sold)
Retired Moderator

What is the advisability of replacing the water pump on my 1999 ML 320 with 117K miles on it. It is not seeping but I have the shroud, and fan with clutch removed so I can change the bearing in the A/C clutch pulley. I found the idler pulley was noisy so I will change that too.

I just was thinking with the pump so easy to change with everything already apart I should go ahead and do it since the vehicle has over 100K on it.

Any advise?

I would replace it....either OE reman from dealer..or a Graf......

__________________
MERCEDES Benz Master Guild Technician (6 TIMES)
ASE Master Technician
Mercedes Benz Star Technician (2 times)
44 years foreign automotive repair
27 Years M.B. Shop foreman (dealer)
MB technical information Specialist (15 years)
190E 2.3 16V ITS SCCA race car (sold)
1986 190E 2.3 16V 2.5 (sold)
Retired Moderator

Ron -- just FYI. On same vehicle as yours, mine was replaced last month. It wasn't because of leakage but , instead, the tech found considerable slop in bearings - he was thorough. Brought the old pump home and confirmed bearing problem. Seemed like there was a lot of movement so am probably lucky it didn't start leaking on last trip.

Vehicle has about 120k km on it.

Geoff

I replaced mine at 60K (last year) with a Graf purchased from Phil. so far so good, it came with gasket already so you don't need to buy any gasket. fitment is perfect.

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98 ML320 (gone but not forgotten)

Thanks for the responses. I decided not to replace the water pump, the bearing felt fine and no seeping. Since it's so easy to replace I'll just wait, hopefully will not suffer a bad failure far from home.

Ron -- I am probably a little late in responding but if you haven't yet reassembled things behind the rad you might want to consider a wee mod.

There is probably an alternate way to ease access to the serpentine belt and associated bits on the front of the engine. However, I found it useful to cut off the lower portion of the fan 'cone' to allow easy removal of the shroud itself. I didn't have to eliminate the whole lower portion of the fan 'cone'. Starting about midway up, I just tapered off the lower area so that the lower area no longer overlaps the fan blades. Depending on how much material is removed, it may be helpful to cut through the remaining bottom of the shroud to ease R & R. I did so and fashioned a removable joint out of sheet metal to hold the bottom together. In my case, I didn't want to cut away too much of the cone -- we have cats and I would be persona non grata should one find it easier to crawl in around the fan.

If you have some photos of your modification I'd like to see them. As far is removing the fan clutch, I have the two special tools which make removal of the fan and clutch very simple, then the fan shroud comes off easily, two bolts on that bottom that go into clips that come right off.

I didn't take any pics when shroud alterations were made -- sorry. In any event, I envision use of the special tool to remove fan as an equally efficient way to get at those items at the front of the engine.