Aisin Water Pumps - 5% Failure Rate?

So you could buy a cheaper pump, and replace the cover with the Toyota cover, right?
Or install thermopaste, or tape? Because that's the only difference?

And as easy as it is to pull the cover off, you could check.

 

If you've got a pump that was built right, with the double-stick thermal interface material, the cover isn't easy to pull off at all, and if you do you may have wrecked it.

I guess if you've got a pump lacking the TIM, and that's the only difference, and you have some economical access to the right kind of TIM, maybe you can take the cover off and add the TIM and reassemble and then have a more-decent pump.

 

Amazing the tiny difference that causes so many failures. Cost cutting or poor quality control on the part of the aftermarket supplier I wonder? I did replace my pump (preemptively) when I did my HG at 176K with the AISIN WPT-190 (sourced from amayama) and I've been fine and am currently about 10K miles into it.