96,500 Miles - Oil Service, MOT and Noise!

MOT time again, this time (due to work location) at the highly recommended Deutsch Tech of Milton Keynes. MOT was fine apart from the handbrake needing adjusting, which I pointed out, as it seemed to only be biting on one side.

Oil service filled it up with Castrol Edge 5w30.

When the car went in, I also asked them to investigate a noise that had been coming from the engine bay when running for a while. Sounded like a pulley/resonating sort of noise from the front end. As a result of the investigation they decided to change the FEAD anciliary belt idler pulley.

When the car was delivered after this work was carried out, it had sprang a leak from thermostat outlet elbow (plastic). The garage admitted it was something they must have done and took the car back to fix. Also the noise was still present, so it was not the Idler pulley but now suspect the alternator.

So in the end, I ended up with a new FEAD ancillary belt, idler pulley and alternator plus a new (although it wasn't originally broken) thermostat housing/thermostat.

76,300 Miles - Broken Fan

Whilst driving, there was a noise from the engine bay, a quick crunch, but the car continued to drive normally. Luckily I was just on my way to a petrol station. I filled up and then, luckily again, I had to just move forward to the air/water point. Looking back I saw a puddle on the ground where I had just been sat filling up. A quick sniff and it was obviously fresh coolant out of my car.

Google+ Link

Inspecting in the engine bay, I soon found that the mechanical radiator cooling fan (the one driven off the water pump via a viscous coupling) had lost all its blades...yes all of them!

They had all sheared off. The blades were all collecting in the bottom of the fan cowling. The fan cowling, even though made from very thick and touch plastic, was cracked. Even worse, one of the blades had punctured the radiator, hence the leak.

So nothing I could do but wait until Monday (this was Friday night of course and I was away Saturday) and get it to a garage.

I left Monday morning after topping the water up to go to Fensomes of Luton, thinking I should be alright to go the short distance, but I had only travelled about 5 minutes before the low coolant light came on, so I stopped and called the RAC. LUCKILY, I was just about to join the motorway when the light came on and the motorway was jammed, with no hard shoulder, so that would have been awful!

But to make up for it a little bit, the RAC turned up within 10 minutes and towed the car to the garage.

In the end it had a new radiator, fan cowling and fan assembly, but only the plastic fan, not the coupling, that seemed to be fine.

A blade also broke the outlet of the headlight washer pump, so the hose cannot be connected. For now, this is not a problem as I have disconnected them anyway until I can replace/fix them as they leak (the jet assembly that is).

Also, obviously, this means the coolant has been replaced.