Car water hoses

[ARWadsworth]

When my 1996 Cavalier started to overheat and it was the headgasket.

I'm not listing them, but my favourite was the MkII Escort.

Cheers

Adam

[Tony Bryer]

12 from 1971-2008

Mini Mini van with windows DAF 66 estate Chrysler Sunbeam Austin Maxi Austin Maestro Skoda Favorit Skoda Felicia Suzuki Wagon x 2 Honda Jazz x 2

Now I live in Melbourne city centre I don't own a car - am in a car share scheme (Honda Jazz/Hyundai I30). Currently visiting the UK with a Prius on hire for a week.

If you want to argue that what you drive says something about you, in my case it's probably true!

[Huge]

Oh, well, might as well, I suppose. Starting in 1975 ...

Vauxhall Viva HA Morris Minor 1000 2-door saloon Ford Capri Mk1 3000E Alfasud 1.5 Tii Ford Escort Mk2 Mini 1000 Volvo Estate (model number long forgotten) Rover SD1 3500 Porsche 924 Turbo Range Rover Classic Another RR Classic Another RR Classic Peugeot 205 XL Peugeot 205 Gentry (an automatic 1.8 GTi) Ford Sierra RS Cosworth Land Rover Discovery V8 Another Land Rover Discovery V8 Land Rover Discovery Td5 TVR Chimaera 450

Quite a lot of these overlap - we usually have a "fun" car and an everyday one at the same time, at least in recent years. And at one point we owned the Cossie, a Rangie and the Pug Gentry at the same time. Presently own the last two. And I'm trying to persuade the management to let me buy a full-out TVR race car as well ...

19 in 35 years. Not many by present company's standards. And not a single one bought new.

[Cicero]

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If your Corsa has a thermostatically controlled cooling fan it's possible that the fan is simply not cutting in as the temperature reaches cut-in point. This may be a failure of the fan itself or the thermostat which controls it (NOT the main engine thermostat).

It's also possible that the internal connections of the plug which connects the fan to the fan switch have corroded - very difficult to trace unless you already suspect it.

You can test fan, switch and plug independently with a few lengths of wire and croc clips.

Cic.

[brass monkey]

One day the fan didn't fire-up when expected (heater was blowing very hot). At the same time the gauge also quit. Replaced fan switch/stat on rad (via a new rad cos laddo screwed the thread), replaced head gauge sender. Everything then worked (and still does), fan cuts-in when gauge reads ~100C, no idea of the real temp though. I still reckon the heater is blowing far too hot.

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[Jules Richardson]

I'm not sure if modern hoses suffer from it, but older ones could sufer delamination, with the inner layer collapsing and blocking or restricting flow. Personally I've only seen it once, but once is enough to know that it can happen :-)

If your heater's blowing very hot air then it suggests that the water pump's stirring the coolant (otherwise I'd expect normal-ish heater output and a cooked engine). As someone else said, I've never known a pump "sort of work" - leak, yes, and outright jam solid.

Thermostats can seize; maybe that's the problem. Pull it out, dump it in a pan of water on the stove, and check that it opens...

[Jules Richardson]

I had that with the Ford Onion* I had after hauling it to the scrapyard.

• a vehicle with no redeeming features whatsoever. It was so piss-poor even the ignition key broke in half once.

Heh, I remember that in one of my Stags after one of the head gaskets let go... I nursed it a couple of hundred miles home with the top down and the heater on full-tilt, stopping every so often to top up the lost coolant.

cheers

Jules

[terry]

Terry In Newfoundland Canada

1956 Ford Consul*^ New 1958 Ford Zephyr*^ New Also assigned a 1957 Land Rover for a period. New 1962 VW Bug* Used 1967 VW Bug* Used 1973 Plymouth Fury, used to over-heat towing caravan! 1976 Chev Impala (Caravan/trailer towing) Company vehicle. New 1976 Chev Bel Air ( " " " ) Ex Hertz rental 1978 VW Rabbit/Golf Diesel+ Slightly used. 1981 Toyota Diesel+ Used 1986 Toyota pickup+ Used 1991 Nissan pickup+ Well used (fourth owners, best vehicle we ever owned). See note.. 1995 Nissan pickup+ Used but only 30,000 when bought. 2002 Nissan pickup+ Self now retired and only 80,000 kms since new in 2002.

Legend:

• On dirt and paved roads. ^ For professional business/occupation.

• For small private family business

Note; 1991 well used Nissan pickup finally rusted out in 1996 at some nearly 300,000 kms. We estimated that the capital 'cost of that vehicle, including a repaint job and new tyres etc. when we first acquired and then used for over some 4.5 years was $80 (Can.) about 50 to 60 quid, per month. Apart from the VWs it was one of the simplest vehicles and was utterly reliable until it's cab floor in these salty and corrosive conditions rusted out at nearly 300,000 kms. Similarly one of the VWs was replaced when wife complained she could see the road in several places as she drove along! Sold that one afterwards to the young feller who is now our provincial government member, who turned it into a 'dune buggy'! Found it years later still somewhat intact dumped in an old quarry. Knew it was ours because had replaced the wiper switch stalk with a toggle in the dash!

[Rob]

Mini Cooper (1980 to 1983) Commer camper (1983)

3 Austin Minis (1984 to 1989) Saab 99 (1990) Citroen Visa (1991) 3 VW Scirrocos (1991 to 2004) Citroen AX (1993 to 1995) VW Golf mk3 (2004 to 2006) Seat Leon (2006 to 2008) VW Golf mk2 (2008) Mazda 3 (2009 to current)

[Jules Richardson]

I had a MKI and I think I'd put that in my top three at least - that car was brilliant fun to drive, especially on dirt or gravel roads, and really easy to work on. I really wish there was a US market so I could pick one up here :-(

cheers

Jules

[djc]

3 in 32 yrs '78-83 Renault 5 (new) '94-97 Mazda MX5 ('92) '98-* Renault Twingo ('94) [* got me to Italy and back in May (75% of its annual mileage so I will keep it until at least until the next MOT in January]

[ARWadsworth]

I think mine was only a 1.3 engine. I used it to build up my no claims bonus as a teenager.

The best bit was that if you dropped the gears fast enough (say 4th to 2nd) you could lock the rear diff up and make the back end skid around on a bend.

I do not think I could afford to buy one now!

Cheers

Adam

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh, the classic failure is the impeller comes a bit loose on the shaft so it still sort of works a bit, but it gets worse and worse.

barely worth it, slap a new one in and if the old one sort of works keep it as a spare.

You can generally gauge if a water pump is working by revving the engine with the cap off the radiator. Water level should drop a bit as the pressure opens up the hoses a bit.

Any sign of oil in the water (usually a white scum on top) or water in the oil (ditto on the dipstick) means oil and water are crossing over. head gasket and possibly skimmed head.

If it only happens when idling. may be the fan.

[Jules Richardson]

Mine was, too - but previous owner had fitted a better head, cam, carb and tubular exhaust to it. With just the driver it was pretty nippy, but it didn't half get sluggish when carrying passengers! It was bloody deafening, too.

I remember plenty of sideways moments on winding mountain-top roads. Always intentional of course - that car was so predictable you could have all sorts of fun with it and it never stepped out of line.

I got mine when I was in NZ and I think I paid about 300 quid for it. Mechanicals and electrics were good, but the less said about structural integrity the better ;-) When the time came to go back to the UK, I tracked down the guy I'd bought it from and sold it back to him for what I'd paid for it. I'd like to think that it's still running, but I bet it's suffered some catastrophic failure by now :-(

cheers

Jules

[Adrian C]

6 in 23 years.

VW Derby (1987, 10yr old) - ex driving school car, dual foot controls, booted version of Polo, 'stand on to stop' hydraulic brakes, stank of perfume from previous owner.

Vauxhall Cavalier MK2 1.6 GL saloon (1990, 3yr old) - 'tap to stop' servo brakes, bought overclocked, engine eventually rebuilt with larger piston rings after unceremoniously coughing out all fluids. Various attempts at theft.

Fiat Punto (1996, new) - Engine bay looked like inside of a washing machine. Excessive roll at corners.

VW Golf MkII Driver (1998, 13yr old) - Sister's old car she got in 1987. White abd looked like a GTI but standard engine. Nice road holder but everywhere I went was followed by an illegal cloud of white smoke. Sold to the nice next door neighbour's brother, who rebuilt it. It's still running and looking back I should have kept it.

Renault Laguna 2.0L Hatchback (1999, 1yr old) - Everything powered except aircon broke, and was found expensive to fix. Fast and stupid drinker of fuel when loaded. Also experienced summer periods of having to drive with heating full blast to cool the engine (Fan thermostat broke).

Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDi Estate (2009, 5yr old)

- No problems so far. First diesel and automatic. Takes weight and cruises at speed without complaint. It's really my updated Golf :-)

Living in London with its public transport system, I don't do many miles a year. 7000/year is rarely reached.

[Steve Walker]

Oddly enough although I've not had a water hose go, one of the turbo hoses on my Focus TDCI went a few weeks ago. It's just a simple albow, with different sized ends and held with two clips similar to jubilees - will Ford sell me the elbow ... only as a unit with a metal pipe attached and a sensor in the metal pipe. There is no part number for the rubber hose alone! So for now, it's had a rubber bandage attached and a couple of jubilee clips over the top, 'til I get an aftermarket hose.

As to cars:

Parents' Lada Parents' Fiat 131 Parents' Taunus MkV Yugo 45 (emergency buy when starting work!) Sierra 1.8GL Rover 420 Company Astra 1.6 Company Alfa-Romeo 146 Rover 416SI Primera SE 2.2 TDCI Focus 1.8 Sport TDCI Wife's Almera 1.4Si Kit-car: Robin-Hood Series III

SteveW

[Jules Richardson]

Was the performance a load of pants?

[Adrian C]

It was a 'company car' from a firm owned by Indians. To uphold some sort of corporate image, they ordered five of these in a garish metalic yellow/gold and gave them as bonus encoragement to staff. I didn't really get to thrash it on the spin cycle of long runs. Knickers....

[The Natural Philosopher]

I found the Punto was the very best small car to be had, for me, performance wise, even better than a polo.

Don't ever touch a Yaris. noisy, gutless, handled like a drunken dutchman..worst car we tried.

Polos were nice but a little too expensive. Corsas were plain dull.

Tried something else as well, but the Punto was a care I really liked, if you had to have a cheap economical car.

[Mark]

I recall going to look at a Ford Onion in a showroom once. The car broke down a few 100 yards down the road. I just got out and walked away leaving a deflated salesman begging me to return. It was quite amusing.

IIRC Stags used to always suffer from cooling issues since the radiator was under specced. The same applied with other Triumphs.

I had a Dolly Sprint which could be a real pain since, if it overheated, the head would warp.