Coolant leak

shane.

Just looking for some advice, left my car in last month for a service and it also had a coolant leak, was told it was the water pump, I drive the car very little only a couple of miles to work each day, had a long journey approx 200 miles during the week and the coolant bottle is empty, what way should I approach it with the garage, not a bit happy really, any advice would be great thanks

barneygumble99

shane. wrote: »

Just looking for some advice, left my car in last month for a service and it also had a coolant leak, was told it was the water pump, I drive the car very little only a couple of miles to work each day, had a long journey approx 200 miles during the week and the coolant bottle is empty, what way should I approach it with the garage, not a bit happy really, any advice would be great thanks

What are you not happy about?

esforum

whats the grievance? Did you fill it before the journey?

If it was ran dry prior to the mechanic repairing the pump, the cylinders may already be damaged. Happened to me not so long ago, didnt spot a leak, ran dry, car to the scrapyard

shane.

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Did they fix the water pump or just tell you its leaking from the pump?

When I left it in for a service I said the coolant bottle was empty so could they check, they said the it was the water pump and it needed to be replaced, that was as far as the conversation went, they did replace the water pump

shane.

esforum wrote: »

whats the grievance? Did you fill it before the journey?

Why would I fill it before the journey? I thought the issue had been fixed by the garage, only reason I know it was empty again was because there was no heat coming from the aircon so I checked the coolant

barneygumble99

Is the car getting hot. Maybe the expansion tank emptied after the long journey due to air being in the system. If the car isnt getting hot and no leaks, I'd just top it up and stay driving.

barneygumble99

How is the gauge behaving?

shane.

barneygumble99 wrote: »

Is the car getting hot. Maybe the expansion tank emptied after the long journey due to air being in the system. If the car isnt getting hot and no leaks, I'd just top it up and stay driving.

No temp gauge on the Astra so can't tell if it's getting hot, how would it empty with no leak?

BorneTobyWilde

Just top it up with coolant. If it becomes empty again it has a leak.
Some vehicles need topping up?

gctest50

any of the following for a start

(or combinations of same )

Cylinder head cracked - €€€€€€€€€
Block cracked - €€€€€€€€€
Head gasket - €€

---

> - €€€€€€

shane.

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Just top it up with coolant. If it becomes empty again it has a leak.
Some vehicles need topping up?

One long journey and it empties, don't think that's the solution

shane.

gctest50 wrote: »

any of the following for a start

(or combinations of same )

Cylinder head cracked - €€€€€€€€€
Block cracked - €€€€€€€€€
Head gasket - €€

---

> - €€€€€€

Should they not have spotted any of these last month when it was left in?

esforum

shane. wrote: »

Why would I fill it before the journey? I thought the issue had been fixed by the garage, only reason I know it was empty again was because there was no heat coming from the aircon so I checked the coolant

Ya know, maybe I am crazy but when my items break and I get them repaired, I check!

Also, they did fix the issue, they never said anything about giving you coolant only that they repaired the pump. a little but of water would have been enough for them to check their work.

You can say they should have filled it but in reality, you should have bloody well checked.

If it didnt overheat, theres no issue, fill it and motor on which I hope is the case, the alternative is pricey and I have no reason to wish that on you

shane. wrote: »

One long journey and it empties, don't think that's the solution

We dnt know that it was full at the start of the journey though, the OP never checked if the garage had refilled it

shane.

esforum wrote: »

Ya know, maybe I am crazy but when my items break and I get them repaired, I check!

Also, they did fix the issue, they never said anything about giving you coolant only that they repaired the pump. a little but of water would have been enough for them to check their work.

You can say they should have filled it but in reality, you should have bloody well checked.

If it didnt overheat, theres no issue, fill it and motor on which I hope is the case, the alternative is pricey and I have no reason to wish that on you



We dnt know that it was full at the start of the journey though, the OP never checked if the garage had refilled it

I did check, the coolant was full when I got it back from the garage

Seth Brundle

shane. wrote: »

I did check, the coolant was full when I got it back from the garage

Currently you are assuming it is a fault of the mechanics work.
It could be a worn rubber hose somewhere at the back of the engine for all you know!

esforum

shane. wrote: »

I did check, the coolant was full when I got it back from the garage

based on your previous answer, I dont believe you.

Pkiernan

Bring it back and tell them it's not fixed.

Ignore some of the people on here who are giving you a hard time. Or report their posts to s Mod.

9935452

Pkiernan wrote: »

Bring it back and tell them it's not fixed.

Ignore some of the people on here who are giving you a hard time. Or report their posts to s Mod.

Agree bring it back to the garage. But be fearful something else could be wrong. The water pump might have been the reason there was a water leak but if it ran dry previously and overheated it could have done other damage such as the head gasket which could cause the water to disappear.
No working temperature gauge wouldnt help diagnosing this.
(I dont understand cars with no temperature gauge or indeed a sensor to tell you the expansion tank is running low)

One poster suggested it might have been airlocked, this is one reason to be checking it regulariy especially after the water pump was done.

shane.

kbannon wrote: »

Currently you are assuming it is a fault of the mechanics work.
It could be a worn rubber hose somewhere at the back of the engine for all you know!

Could be, but if it's left in for a coolant leak I'd assume a qualified mechanic would check for that

biko

Fill up with water and take it back to mechanics.

shane.

Just back from the garage, he looked through my account and it said service and check coolant leak and then water pump to be changed, he looked through the invoices and he doesnt think they changed the water pump, have to drop back monday

biko

This is a bit confusing. I hope they didn't charge you for the pump replacement yet.
Anyway, good luck

shane.

biko wrote: »

This is a bit confusing. I hope they didn't charge you for the pump replacement yet.
Anyway, good luck

very confusing, seems like he wants a manager to deal with it who wasnt in today (the usual), i wont be giving them anymore money!

StereoSound

I'd ask for a refund and go else where, wouldn't trust them if it turns out the pump wasn't done.

roverrules

StereoSound wrote: »

I'd ask for a refund and go else where, wouldn't trust them if it turns out the pump wasn't done.

That would depend on if he were actually charged for changing the pump, what other work was done and what were you charged?

shane.

roverrules wrote: »

That would depend on if he were actually charged for changing the pump, what other work was done and what were you charged?

Timing belt and a service, invoice is mostly part numbers so will find out Monday

Toots

If they were changing the timing belt they should have done the pump. Any time I've had a t-belt done they've priced the job to include the water pump.

shane.

Turns out they hadn't changed the water pump or hose, got it sorted, thanks to all who offered helpful advice