Bongo Fury

Hi,

You may recall I posted on the the mud claws thread that the coolant hose blew 5 minutes into my Isle of Wight holiday the other week, taking the water pump with it.

£700 quid later, I heard a hissing sound yesterday and fearful of snakes I took it straight back to the garage that did the repair as I'm supposed to be going away in it today. It had blown the top radiator hose off which they fitted, but during the road test it blew something at the bottom and they're keeping it overnight to have a look again this morning.

If it's generating that kind of pressure I have really bad feeling its the head gasket - though the AA did a sniffer test during the initial incident pre water pump replacement and it came up fine.

There goes the blooming bank holiday weekend.

Anthony

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Well I'm not a mechanic, but if it's blowing hoses off the radiator due to prsssure I'd be asking why the radiator cap isn't relieving the pressure?
Jim




quote="anfarrow"]Hi,

You may recall I posted on the the mud claws thread that the coolant hose blew 5 minutes into my Isle of Wight holiday the other week, taking the water pump with it.

£700 quid later, I heard a hissing sound yesterday and fearful of snakes I took it straight back to the garage that did the repair as I'm supposed to be going away in it today. It had blown the top radiator hose off which they fitted, but during the road test it blew something at the bottom and they're keeping it overnight to have a look again this morning.

If it's generating that kind of pressure I have really bad feeling its the head gasket - though the AA did a sniffer test during the initial incident pre water pump replacement and it came up fine.

There goes the blooming bank holiday weekend.

Anthony

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What was the £700 for ?? just a waterpump and a hose??? Was the garage clued up on Bongos? doesn't sound good

As he was doing the water pump I got them to replace the cam belt at the same time for good measure.

Van is back. Apparently it passed the sniffer test, they've replaced the radiator top hose which sprang a leak, and then the turbo coolant hose which had gone.

So far looks okay.... lost confidence though

are you saying you paid £700 for a new water pump fitted, top hose and change cam belt.?? If this is the case you have been robbed. I would not go back to that garage.

Have you checked and double checked that the system was bled according to the bible....If the level is low then all sorts of hissy/bubbles sound off. And of course you will overheat.

Given what you were charged I suspect that the garage hasn't got a clue!

cheers

H

I reckon that once a faulty waterpump is replaced, any dodgy hoses will give way as the new waterpump will pressurise the system more

The water pump doesn't really pressurise the system Pete - it really only "lifts" the coolant from the parts of the system which are lower than the engine block.

haydn callow wrote:are you saying you paid £700 for a new water pump fitted, top hose and change cam belt.?? If this is the case you have been robbed. I would not go back to that garage.

In truth that's slightly misleading as I told them to also do a full service, which looking at the ticket 100 quid of was regassing the aircon which had gone (and would explain why it wasn't kicking out cold air..) plus new rear brake pads - though I'm annoyed they charged me for that part as I had a set ready for about a year now. Anybody want a set of pads let me know...

It was 6.5 hours labour all in which I was happy with - and I couldn't do the cam belt change myself. Some parts were more expensive than I could get them for (water pump & gasket), but the cam belt kit & filter kit was cheaper than ava/bongomeister so it balanced out.

I was just happy to see it again in truth!

It's back from it's latest visit, the top hose to the radiator had split, when they fixed this, the follow up road test blew the small hose to the turbo. This one had been replaced by the AA during the original incident on the Isle of Wight and the garage didn't think it had held well (suprised). They have replaced this with a slightly longer piece of hose and reseated with new clips and the road & pressure test appears to check out. Sniffer test is clean so I haven't done the head gasket which was my worst fear.

Mechanic believes it's a ten year old car and the pipes are just starting to show age as being mid engined there are a lot of them. I'll keep an eye on it... may also replace the pressure cap based on your advice

Good luck anfarrow & hope its an end to it. You dont want to spend more £, but a low coolant warning alarm is giving me peace of mind.