Radiator blew out

In article >,
pws > wrote:

> I can't see trying to deal with the fans any other way than with the
> radiator off of the car.
> You are going from a nightmare job to a very easy task of sitting over
> the radiator on a bench with a socket wrench and all the room you could
> ever need to remove and install the fans.

Yeah, well...I obviously followed the wrong set of directions.

--
Lanny Chambers
'94C, St. Louis
http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

In article >,
"Frank Berger" > wrote:

> Just heard from the dealer. After replacing the radiator and repressurizing
> the system, the water pump is leaking. When I complained that I asked about
> replacing the WP a year ago when my timing belt was done, they said it
> wasn't leaking and they didn't recommend it. His response was that probably
> the car overheating yesterday blew the WP seal and a new WP would have blown
> also.

I doubt that, but a year is plenty of time for a water pump to get a
year older and start leaking regardless. My original water pump lasted
114k, no overheating.

--
Lanny Chambers
'94C, St. Louis
http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

Frank Berger wrote:

> 91K. I do not suspect my dealer of cheating me. I think independent
> operators are more likely to cheat and to be incompetent. That is why the
> dealerships get away with charging more money. I have had three instances of
> clear-cut crookedness over the years. All 3 were gas stations.


I am not saying that all dealerships are crooked, there are probably 1%
to 2% that are actually honest. If you have found one of those rare
places, then more power to ya.

Taking a car to a gas station that does auto work is something that I
have never done and will never do unless my car breaks down on a road
trip and I have no other choice.

Did you see the movie "Family Vacation" with Chevy Chase?
The scene at the hillbilly mechanic shop is not that much of an
exaggeration. :-)

Pat

Lanny Chambers wrote:

> Yeah, well...I obviously followed the wrong set of directions.

I actually didn't follow any set of directions, I just did the same
steps that I followed when I did my parent's Camry a few years ago. The
radiator and fan setups are nearly identical.

The only difference at all between the two car models was that the '94
Camry has two engine oil lines that run into the radiator at the bottom.
This seems like a good idea overall, but I have never seen it on another
car.

Pat

Lanny Chambers wrote:

> I doubt that, but a year is plenty of time for a water pump to get a
> year older and start leaking regardless. My original water pump lasted
> 114k, no overheating.

Two Lanny-Pat agreements in one day, wow!

This, along with Streeter's latest post, makes it pretty clear to me
that the water pump should be replaced every time the timing belt is done.
It's not like $80.00 is nothing, but there are too many stories of them
failing to last until 120K miles.

Pat

pws > wrote:

>Scott Hughes wrote:
>
>> Do you remember how long it took to change it out? I've got all the parts
>> (including the related hoses etc) in the garage, just haven't found a good
>> time to do it yet.
>>
>> -Scott
>
>
>Part of the answer depends on whether your car has the plastic
>undercarriage shield. Removing that part adds some time to the process
>if it is installed.

After I bought a 10 mm nut driver at Sears, the shield does not frighten me
as it used to.

Leon

>On my car, without needing to remove this shield, I can swap the
>radiator in about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. This includes gathering the tools,
>draining the antifreeze and filling it back up.
>
>Like Lanny said, it is mostly tedious, swapping the fans back and forth
>and dealing with the hoses. If the hoses are old, they can be hard to
>get off. I cut them and then use vice-grips to twist them back and forth
>until they come free. Of course, you only need to remove one end of the
>hose when doing a radiator swap, so that helps time-wise.
>
>A set of Rhino ramps and a good crawler can make that hurting back that
>Lanny mentioned a non-factor as well.
>
>Pat
--
Leon van Dommelen Bess, the Miata Bozo, the Miata
http://www.dommelen.net/miata
The only thing better than a white Miata is two white Miatas

Leon van Dommelen wrote:

> After I bought a 10 mm nut driver at Sears, the shield does not frighten me
> as it used to.
>
> Leon

I am sorry that it ever frightened you, but you are clearly a complete
pussy, so it is not a shock to me.

A person like you who is so easy to find should probably not be so quick
to insult people in a public forum. (I count 3 from you in 2 days)

That is not a threat, just an opinion on safety and common sense.

Pat

"pws" > wrote in message
news
> Frank Berger wrote:
>
>> 91K. I do not suspect my dealer of cheating me. I think independent
>> operators are more likely to cheat and to be incompetent. That is why
>> the dealerships get away with charging more money. I have had three
>> instances of clear-cut crookedness over the years. All 3 were gas
>> stations.
>
>
> I am not saying that all dealerships are crooked, there are probably 1% to
> 2% that are actually honest. If you have found one of those rare places,
> then more power to ya.
>
> Taking a car to a gas station that does auto work is something that I have
> never done and will never do unless my car breaks down on a road trip and
> I have no other choice.
>
> Did you see the movie "Family Vacation" with Chevy Chase?
> The scene at the hillbilly mechanic shop is not that much of an
> exaggeration. :-)
>
> Pat
>
Oh boy. Now you've forced me to tell a story. In 1967 I was driving my
1957 Chrysler Windsor to Madison, Wisconsin for my Junior year of college.
Somewhere on the Indiana Turnpike on a Sunday, the generator light came on.
Gas station on the turnpike had a mechanic on duty. His diagnosis: bad
generator. But he said the generator that was in the car was not the right
generator. Someone had put the wrong generator in there at some point and
had to replace a bracket or something to get the wrong generator in there.
He had that right generator, but not the bracket. He worked for a several
hours modifying the bracket and finally got me on the road. A few days
after getting to Madison, the generator light came on again. Took it to a
Chysler dealer. Diagnosis: generator burned out, but the wrong generator
was in the car. Someone had destroyed the OEM bracket in order to get the
wrong generator in there. Stunned silence on my part.

I believe my father got his money back from the oil co. that owned that
Indiana gas station.

"pws" > wrote in message
...
> Frank Berger wrote:
>
>> Just heard from the dealer. After replacing the radiator and
>> repressurizing the system, the water pump is leaking. When I complained
>> that I asked about replacing the WP a year ago when my timing belt was
>> done, they said it wasn't leaking and they didn't recommend it. His
>> response was that probably the car overheating yesterday blew the WP seal
>> and a new WP would have blown also. I'm inclined to agree, since I had
>> been looking for signs of the WP leaking for a while and found none.
>> Oh, I need front and rear brakes also. Big $$$.
>
>
> How many miles are you at? I would be highly suspicious of their water
> pump story. 6+ years of reading this newsgroup and I have never heard of a
> radiator blowout or car overheating to cause the water pump alone to fail.
> If the temperatures got that high for that long, you would probably be
> looking at engine damage as well, unless possibly the pump was getting
> ready to go anyway.
>
> It could be coincidence, a very small water pump leak that can't be seen
> yet, or a flat-out lie by the dealership. What you are going through is
> how big dealerships make most of their money.
> Selling cars doesn't bring in nearly as much money as overcharging
> customers for factory parts and charging 2 book hours for a 45 minute job.
>
> Also, by front and rear brakes, do you mean pads, rotors, calipers, master
> cylinder, etc.? If it were my car, I would get that miata to another
> mechanic for a 2nd opinion.
>

No it was just pads. And I think it was just the second, maybe third
replacement since I've owned the car.

> You can save quite a bit with things like remanufactured calipers, pads &
> rotors from Trussville, and even a halfway decent shade tree mechanic can
> do a safe and good brake job. It is incredibly easy to do.
>
> If you have the money, however, there is no question that it is easier
> just to have it towed to the dealer and to (hopefully) have it work
> afterwards.
>
I don't like $1,200 repair bills, but can handle it. Only expense really in
a couple of years, other than oil changes, so it's not so bad.

"Lanny Chambers" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "Frank Berger" > wrote:
>
>> Just heard from the dealer. After replacing the radiator and
>> repressurizing
>> the system, the water pump is leaking. When I complained that I asked
>> about
>> replacing the WP a year ago when my timing belt was done, they said it
>> wasn't leaking and they didn't recommend it. His response was that
>> probably
>> the car overheating yesterday blew the WP seal and a new WP would have
>> blown
>> also.
>
> I doubt that, but a year is plenty of time for a water pump to get a
> year older and start leaking regardless. My original water pump lasted
> 114k, no overheating.
>
> --

Caveat: there had been a screeching noise on cold starts for quite a while
now, like a belt slipping, but the tension seemd OK. Could it have been bad
WP bearings causing the pulley to be stiff and make the belt slip until the
pulley got up to speed? Would that have made it more likey to the WP to
start leaking when the car overheated? Just a thought.