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Thread: My sweet week!

  1. #1
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    Default My sweet week!

    About 2 weeks ago(on a friday) I got a coolent flush done on my car at a certain oil change place, the next day I had to work over night at ProKart changing the track layout. After that (sunday morning) I was heading out to my mom's house wich is about 15 min away from ProKart, I get on the freeway and I notice my heat gauge pegged on hot, I pull over and eventually find the nearest oil change place to top off my coolent and see why I am out of coolent. They said the people who did it forgot to put coolent in the radiator, so they topped me off and sent me on my way. About 5 days later later I am over heating again, stop at the oil change place where I had the flush done at and they topped my off again and sent me on my way. 2 days later it happened again, took it to get topped off again and they told me to take it to my mechanic to see why and where it is leaking from. My mechanic said they couldnt find the actual leak but topped it off and sent me on my way agiain. After they checked the leak it seemed to stop leaking.

    Then last monday, I was on my way home from fighting my ticket and noticed smoke coming from my engine bay, but my heat gauge was fine, not 3 min later my gauge was pegged on hot. I exited the freeway and managed to find the oil change place, they topped me off and told me to go right to the place I had the flush done at and have them look at it. I leave that place get on the freeway and my gauge is pegged on hot again not even 3 min later. I go back to the store and they say that it is my thurmostat, they had some one come from forever away to put a thurmostat in my car. An hour later he is done and I start my car up, it starts no problem then CLUNK, I shut the enginge off and ask "what was that?", they told me that they dont know what it was and had me start it again, started just fine again then CLUNK it dies.

    They send me to their mechanic to see what is up with my car, on wedness day I get a call from the mechanic saying that the timing belt broke and that is why my car died, it has nothing to do with the oil change place the overheating has nothing to do with it at all, so now I am stuck with a $150 tow charge to the shop(the shop was literally 5 min away) and a $50 diagnostic charge. After hours on the phone with the oil change place I finally get them to pay for the tow, but not the diagnostics. I pay that and get a friend from work to tow it to his house and take a look at it, he got it on thursday, and has told me that I need a headgasket, a waterpump, and a timing belt for sure. The head is at a machine shop getting pressure tested to see if there is any valve damage or warpage due to over heating.



    ^^^^^^^^^
    This is a picture of my water pump gear that is in the timing cover, the gears sould be parelell with the plastic cover. The gears have actually tweaked out and to the left, pushing the plastic cover over and out a little.

    ^^^^^^^^^
    Here is the broken timing belt, both the mechanic and my friend say it broke because the water pump froze and snapped the belt, also causing the bent/broken water pump.
    (sorry for the bad pics they are from my VGA camera phone)


    If the head is in trouble I will probably have to get a new engine, it will actually end up being cheaper than just a head.

  2. #2
    Speed Demon
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    Default Re: My sweet week!

    Quote Originally Posted by DogGod
    If the head is in trouble I will probably have to get a new engine, it will actually end up being cheaper than just a head.
    Been there done that... In the end, I replaced everything, as you know. I got a new engine, which was pretty cheap. Listening to the different engines crank is almost like night and day, the new motoro will start right up, if you go that route. Sorry to hear that, car maintainance is soooooo over priced. Took my dad and I max of 10 hours of labor from taking the old motor out, to starting the new motor. He showed me the actual cost of going through the shop... 2000 bux minimum, and it wasnt even that complicated!

    Good luck, and dont think getting a new motor is bad! Its great! new... if only my heater would work... need a new dash.. because the switch shuts off when the heater kicks in, making it cold again.

    P.S. Im pretty drunk, so give me lea way to miss spelling.

  3. #3
    Speed Demon
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    Default

    Oh ya, that water pump doesnt took too happy. Post the quote before you get the repairs done! water pump and thermostat replacement were EASY on my celica, some new gaskets and pump/stat and I needed to undo the belt, and a few bolts, bam, all set and ready to go! at most 45 bux for pump, 5 for seals, and I bought a new belt regardless.

  4. #4
    Yoda of Radar
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    Default

    Okay so the engine has a bad headgasket and is eating coolant and overheating like crazy, and then the timing belt snaps! Not too lucky!

    My suggestion - wait for one of those u-pull junkyards to have a "$75 engine sale!" and go grab a new motor.

  5. #5
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    Default

    The guy who is doing it for me is pretty much just charging me for the parts, and about $10 an hour All Data time, so I am getting the whole thing for fairly cheap. The head is in the machine shop today and by this evening I will know if I need a new head or not. They said it looked fine so my hopes are up.


    He showed me the water pump and what you have to do to get it out and it really looks like a PITA to get out, the thermostat was replaced by that oil change place on Monday.

  6. #6
    Yoda of Radar
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    Default

    Really interesting to see what happened to the water pump. Typically the seals in it start to wear and it just leaks coolant. Or sometimes if you don't change the antifreeze, the antifreeze turns acidic and eats away the impeller on the pump and eventually there isn't any impeller left. But just randomly seizing and killing the timing belt? Ouch.

    Reminds me of how much I hate having the pump driven by the timing belt, it's a dumb idea. On my Saab, the water pump sits on top of the engine above the alternator and is driven by two V belts. If you needed to replace it it'd take about 30 minutes from opening the hood, draining coolant etc, and closing the hood and going for a drive

    The worst was on my father's 626, the pump is in the timing belt area, but it isn't driven by the belt, it's driven by the alternator belt and it goes through the timing cover. Ugh to replace this pump you basically have to remove the engine :shock:

 

 

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