Club 80-90 Forums

Ok, so not major damage, by the looks of things. I've to get a new 'pipeta termostat' and 'refrigerador collector' (which I translate as the thermostat and coolant tank!??!) but it'll only cost about 200 euro for parts and labour...sound about right to you guys? (price and diagnosis)

Glad its sorted and by the sound of it nothing major.

If the thermostat had stuck shut ( fairly common ) then you would have had those exact systems... temp rising but no cooling fan, as the water in the rad would still be cold ! So steam is the result !

Sounds about right as far as money goes, a couple of hours labour and the parts.

Im guessing your van is younger than 1985? unlike Mine which is older and has the early type thermostat housing... these are a bloody nightmare if they havnt been apart for a few decades and your bill could have been a lot lot higher .

Hi Dee, in view of this =

deecosi wrote:the red temp light flashing. I pulled into the first garage I met (around 10km later)

And then this =

deecosi wrote: 15km later the engine sounded hoarse, and dry...around 2mins later as I was looking for somewhere to pull in it stopped, kaput, in the middle of the street, with smoke coming out the back.

It sounds like you have been VERY lucky (fingers crossed) as normally if a WBX engine gets so hot and starts making funny noises it is often pretty terminal. I hope for your sake it isn't. The golden rule here is if you see a red light on the dash, it means stop right away Not as soon as convenient, or at the next garage etc. Following this golden rule can save your engine from death and the £1,000+ (more if you are away from home) in replacing it.

E D I T - re-reading your first post, I suppose that first "mechanic" did you no favours either

Hi all.

So, I've had my van in the mechanics here in Spain now for almost three weeks (anniversary tomorrow!!!) and after waiting most of those three weeks for a new seal for the head gasket the mechanic fitted everything back together this morning to find that there is water coming through a different part of the head gasket. It's a small, small leak, and he's now sealed it and in a few hours is going to fit it all together again (once the sealant has dried properly) and assures me I should be on my way.

HOWEVER....I'm a little concerned about this being a head gasket issue as it's something that (reading through the forum) appears to be quite serious and difficult to fix.

Any advice? Should I be getting a second opinion? Is a little leak fixable without a new head gasket???

As always, any advice is much appreciated.

Dee

Up close repair of leaky gasket

I hope these help

mmm reads to me like he fitted new gaskets/seals and then saw a leak and took it appart again?

you don't really have head gaskets on these engines you have a series of seals, the most important perhaps is the metal sealing rings for the head to cylinder liners as once crushed it won't recover like all the other rubber seals.

Once assembled the metal sealing ring can't be reused, all the other seals are debateable if you can reuse assuming they were new when first assembled but I wouldn't , so if he has taken the head off again you need new seals.

the round things are core plugs, metal seals that are pressed in but it dosent look to me that the sealant is on that,
it looks to me it's a hole in the head perhaps a crack from overheating maybe but I's say you may need a new head in future.

Thanks itchyfeet...I'm thinking, as the rubber seal we waited weeks for turned out to be the last one his suppliers had in Spain (!) that he will have maybe checked for (and found) this leak before assembling it and wasting the new seal...did I say thinking? I mean hoping!!! I'll be asking tomorrow.

And on it goes....!!

I think Brickwerks will deliver all over the world send them an email and ask how it's done.

sales@brickwerks.co.uk

Thanks, I'll get onto them and hopefully they'll be more reliable than the Spanish counterpart my mechanic has been dealing with!!! (I already know they will be)

Dee.