Water pump grease. Time to replace?

[bmwpower603]

I was forced to remove my intake plenum. To epoxy broken tabs on the hose that runs to the front of the plenum. (I do NOT want to replace that hose after just having the throttle valves out recently) hopefully epoxy, then steel jb weld will hold it together.

I was also inspecting my oil filter housing area. Since I’m going to attempt the gasket for the oil filter housing. While doing so, I noticed what looks like a bead of grease around my water pump bearing. Does this mean it’s on its way out?

I’ve only seen this on wheel bearings honestly. I stuck a pick down there to see what it was. And it’s confirmed red grease.

Should I replace the water pump while doing OFHG ? Looks like Rien water pumps are on back order. That’s the only after market company I trust.

Here’s a pic. The pump has roughly 50k on it.

[Johal E32]

Looks like your water pump might be weeping. Mine looked like that when I was doing my OFHG, so I just decided to replace it with a GEBA pump. FCP Euro has them in stock.