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Hazza

Hazza

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Harry
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Hi,

I'm in a bit of a pickle at the moment, basically I started driving in September with a Nissan Micra but changed to an 04 plate Fiesta in mid december. This Fiesta spent a week in the garage in January with a broken coil spring, and had to go in last Friday as it had a small coolant leak... I collected it this Friday and went to Peterborough where it took an age to warm up, on the way back, the temp shot up and I only just made it back before the remnants of the coolant emptied onto my drive. This has really annoyed me as I've booked this week off and now I'm stuck at home... I'm thinking that if this continues, I'm going to start throwing good money after bad.

Would you fix it and stick with it for a bit or fix it and get shot?

Harry.
 
If you want trouble free motoring you really need to buy newer and better, a 10 year old car is never going to be in great nick unless you're very lucky and/or pay a lot for it. Did the garage fix the leak properly the first time?
 
As above.

That said I'm currently looking at a 7 year old 6.1 litre V8 lump. God knows what kinda issues that'll cause me if I do get it.:)
 
Does sound a little like the thermostat.

Do you know where the original leak was.?

I sometimes think better the devil you know, but their comes a point where it's just not worth it, downside is the next car could be the same.
 
If it takes a garage a week to fix a broken spring and the trouble you've had after they fixed a small coolant leak, I'd be questioning the competence of the garage, not the car.
 
nilagin said:
If it takes a garage a week to fix a broken spring and the trouble you've had after they fixed a small coolant leak, I'd be questioning the competence of the garage, not the car.
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Well they can redo this and then I'm not going there again TBH... Thing is as a family we've used them for ages now but this isn't the first problem we've had with them recently...

I know that it's pot luck with 10 year old cars but it's the inconvenience of it. I'm in a fortunate position at the moment where I car share to work.

I'd be looking to replace it with a Golf/Leon 1.9TDI, which would be much better on fuel especially as I do a fair amount of miles...
 
The insurance on a golf 1.9 TDI will curl your hair if you've only been driving 6 months (especially if you are young) - plus everything goes wrong eventually and VAG parts are a lot more than Ford - I'd get the fester fixed by someone who knows what they are doing and then stick with that -

also I'd disagree about the ten year old car thing - these days 10 years is nowt and newer won't necessarily be better (unless you can afford something so new its under warranty - which I'm guessing you can't) - I'm driving a 9 year old focus with 135 thou on it , (I've had it for 6 years) and while its had the occasional fault it still runs fine - theres no reason why your fester should be any different
 
big soft moose said:
The insurance on a golf 1.9 TDI will curl your hair if you've only been driving 6 months (especially if you are young) - plus everything goes wrong eventually and VAG parts are a lot more than Ford - I'd get the fester fixed by someone who knows what they are doing and then stick with that -

also I'd disagree about the ten year old car thing - these days 10 years is nowt and newer won't necessarily be better (unless you can afford something so new its under warranty - which I'm guessing you can't) - I'm driving a 9 year old focus with 135 thou on it , (I've had it for 6 years) and while its had the occasional fault it still runs fine - theres no reason why your fester should be any different
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You'd be surprised about the insurance, it's about the same as my fiesta!

No, budget will be about 2.5k so wouldn't be able to get anything with manufacturers warranty.
 
In my experience there isn't an appreciable difference between cars that are £1k and cars that are £2.5k - you get good ones , and you get crap ones - I had a Nissan micra that I bought for 650 quid, ran for four years needing only two tyres and one set of brake pads and sold (well part exed) for £500 - I also had a van that cost £2k (plus an MX5 in part ex) and was a total heap of crap and needed over a grand's worth of work in the two years I had it.
 
We've had older cars for years and had mostly gooduns. If you do decide to change one thing I would suggest is trying to get something a little bigger. Small cars are always sort after. Something a bit bigger eg an astra or focus may cost you less to buy but if its an older car cost the same to tax if under 1.5l But don't forget to get an insurance quote first.

As for the fiesta, at least the water isnt going in the engine. Some water leaks can be hard to find, but if its coming out that quick it should be obvious. If the car is otherwise sound then it may be worth sorting, it would be a shame to get rid because of a broken jubaly clip. Let us know how you get on.
 
Raptor Mike said:
We've had older cars for years and had mostly gooduns. If you do decide to change one thing I would suggest is trying to get something a little bigger. Small cars are always sort after. Something a bit bigger eg an astra or focus may cost you less to buy but if its an older car cost the same to tax if under 1.5l But don't forget to get an insurance quote first.

As for the fiesta, at least the water isnt going in the engine. Some water leaks can be hard to find, but if its coming out that quick it should be obvious. If the car is otherwise sound then it may be worth sorting, it would be a shame to get rid because of a broken jubaly clip. Let us know how you get on.
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It's not something simple though, we filled it up with water again and started it and there was very little leaking out - definitely not the rate it was coming out at when I limped home anyway!
 
on the brightside that rules out head gasket - it would have blown all the coolant out straight away you restarted if it were that. - it could be all sorts of things but I'd suspect either a loose clip or a split hose - it only leaks a little when first started because the coolant is reasonably cool , as engine temps increase the raising temperature in the coolant forces more out through the split.

the real key is to make sure the garage diagnose then contact you before fixing - you don't want to find that they've fixed it but the bill is twice what the car is worth
 
sounds like it had an air lock to me and once it cleared blew the coolant out
should be a simple enough fix
 
If you're at the point of paying more for repairs than the value of the car, then it's time to consider changing. The VAG PD 130 (the ones in a lot of early Leons, Golfs and Fabias etc) engines are considered bullet proof. There are bad ones out there, but there are also some good bargains to be found.
 
big soft moose said:
on the brightside that rules out head gasket - it would have blown all the coolant out straight away you restarted if it were that. - it could be all sorts of things but I'd suspect either a loose clip or a split hose - it only leaks a little when first started because the coolant is reasonably cool , as engine temps increase the raising temperature in the coolant forces more out through the split.

the real key is to make sure the garage diagnose then contact you before fixing - you don't want to find that they've fixed it but the bill is twice what the car is worth
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If there was very little leaking when first started, I'd say the leak was between the thermostat and the radiator. As soon as the thermostat opens and it gets the full cooling system pressure I'm betting it'll leak again, big time.
 
Hazza said:
I collected it this Friday and went to Peterborough where it took an age to warm up, on the way back, the temp shot up and I only just made it back before the remnants of the coolant emptied onto my drive.
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I woul be worried about this bit.
That it took "an age" to warm up either indicates that there was actually no water in the block (or at least going past the temperature sensor) or that the thermostat was jammed open.
The "temp shot up" part kind of suggests that there was no water in the block / past the sensor.
If that was the case, then serious damage could have been inflicted on the engine. (If you were driving a Rover, I would have suggested your HG would have been toast, as it's a ford, you may be lucky).

I would be tempted to think it was an airlock, especially as the garage wil have had to empty the coolant to fix the leak.
Google fiesta+airlock+your engine size+year, I'm sure there will be a guide on one of the ford forums on clearing airlocks.

By the way, why did you carry on driving it if it was overheating? The warning lights/gauges are there to warn you to stop, not to warn you to keep going with your fingers crossed. If you haven't already, get AA/RAC/Green Flag (other companies are available), that way you won't be tempted to carry on driving with warnings because you won't be worried about the cost of recovery.
 
LC2 said:
I woul be worried about this bit.
That it took "an age" to warm up either indicates that there was actually no water in the block (or at least going past the temperature sensor) or that the thermostat was jammed open.
The "temp shot up" part kind of suggests that there was no water in the block / past the sensor.
If that was the case, then serious damage could have been inflicted on the engine. (If you were driving a Rover, I would have suggested your HG would have been toast, as it's a ford, you may be lucky).

I would be tempted to think it was an airlock, especially as the garage wil have had to empty the coolant to fix the leak.
Google fiesta+airlock+your engine size+year, I'm sure there will be a guide on one of the ford forums on clearing airlocks.

By the way, why did you carry on driving it if it was overheating? The warning lights/gauges are there to warn you to stop, not to warn you to keep going with your fingers crossed. If you haven't already, get AA/RAC/Green Flag (other companies are available), that way you won't be tempted to carry on driving with warnings because you won't be worried about the cost of recovery.
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I'd driven it back from the garage on Friday afternoon (strangely enough, it took ages to warm up then - I went past my house (which is 6 miles from the garage) in order to get it up to temp as it had been sat at the garage for some time), so checked the coolant before I left on Sat. It was sat between the min and max.

I was at the point where I was close enough to home not be covered by my breakdown... I thought it was just running a bit hot so I put the heating on full blast. Had I of know coolant was p***ing out I'd have stopped. Complacency I suppose.

I had a think and with the mileage I'll be doing once the flying at Duxford starts it might be worth switching to a dirty diesel anyway!
 
I had a lot of trouble with a 2004 Fiesta. One month after I got it, the engine went and had to get another in. Then I had a problem where the engine leaked. I got rid of it last year thank god and bought a newer fiesta, a 2010 Fiesta Titanium TDCI. This car serves me well and is a dream to drive.
So much better on fuel costs too :)
 
Dael_Pix said:
I had a lot of trouble with a 2004 Fiesta. One month after I got it, the engine went and had to get another in. Then I had a problem where the engine leaked. I got rid of it last year thank god and bought a newer fiesta, a 2010 Fiesta Titanium TDCI. This car serves me well and is a dream to drive.
So much better on fuel costs too :)
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Mines back at the garage. Hopefully they will sort it this time!!
 
andy0306 said:
If you're at the point of paying more for repairs than the value of the car, then it's time to consider changing. The VAG PD 130 (the ones in a lot of early Leons, Golfs and Fabias etc) engines are considered bullet proof. There are bad ones out there, but there are also some good bargains to be found.
Click to expand...


The "130" bit just refers to the BHP that the engine produces. The engine itself is the 1.9 TDi PD model, which can give anything from 105BHP right up to 170BHP.
I have the base 105BHP model in our 55 reg Octavia, and it is a great engine. It pulls well and returns between 50 - 56MPG.
 
andy700 said:
The "130" bit just refers to the BHP that the engine produces. The engine itself is the 1.9 TDi PD model, which can give anything from 105BHP right up to 170BHP.
I have the base 105BHP model in our 55 reg Octavia, and it is a great engine. It pulls well and returns between 50 - 56MPG.
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Yeah, I've seen some 90PS ones which would be cheap to insure but utterly pointless. I'm looking for a 110/115ps one I think.
 
andy700 said:
The "130" bit just refers to the BHP that the engine produces. The engine itself is the 1.9 TDi PD model, which can give anything from 105BHP right up to 170BHP.
I have the base 105BHP model in our 55 reg Octavia, and it is a great engine. It pulls well and returns between 50 - 56MPG.
Click to expand...

I just picked the 130 as it's probably the most common, some of the later 170 models had a DPF fitted and they were rubbish. I know of a couple that had them removed and had a lot of hassle, they just weren't designed to have the DPF unlike the newer CR engines. I know of a PD130 running just under 300bhp, it's a real beast lol.
 
andy0306 said:
I just picked the 130 as it's probably the most common, some of the later 170 models had a DPF fitted and they were rubbish. I know of a couple that had them removed and had a lot of hassle, they just weren't designed to have the DPF unlike the newer CR engines. I know of a PD130 running just under 300bhp, it's a real beast lol.
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Wow, that is seriously hardcore!
 
I've had issues with leaking before, and the only fix is replacing the radiator. The whole was needle size but when the pressure goes up when the car heats up the spray from the whole was going like 2-3 meters in front of my car quite visible, and in no time my cooling liquid was from max to no-way to drive min
 
Hazza said:
I'd driven it back from the garage on Friday afternoon (strangely enough, it took ages to warm up then - I went past my house (which is 6 miles from the garage) in order to get it up to temp as it had been sat at the garage for some time), so checked the coolant before I left on Sat. It was sat between the min and max.
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I am motorcycle mechanic so don't know for sure ...But I think you're reading the scale on an expantion bottle, but is the radiator cap on this bottle?(safety cap/valve) or is the radiator cap on the actual radiator? If it is elsewhere, you have NOT checked the actual coolant levels.
 
Find leaking spot exactly...fix the hose, clamp, radiator fin, or whatever.
Check thermostat is opening fully. (drop it in a kettle and watch is open)
Check possibly two thermostatic switches for opening and closing (same as above only electrically tested)
One thermo switch will be for the fan, so check fan works by direct power feed also.
Check radiator cap stays closed during working temperatures. 100-110 is degrees (guess ish). opening leaks will be seen going into the expansion bottle, or exit under car.
Check water pump is impelling water round system at full flow.. you can't see so look at it mechanically for rot or breakages, or test it disconnected and make a mess. (you can run a cold engine briefly to test no problem)

(y)
 
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