6 replies to this topic

[mini left in the park]

Hi,

I need some advice. Driving car home (998cc) on friday the fan belt started squealing, thought fair enough it had been raining and there was some surface water still about.

Car not used over weekend, started it this morning fine. Drove for about 5 miles and a knocking/tapping sound started within the depths of the engine bay. Pulled over, as pulling into park, fanbelt started to squeal (no road water about)

Popped bonnet, noticed water boiling on the block near head gasket. Had no other choice but to head back home, speed was restricted to 40mph and slowly came down to 30. At this point i pulled over (car stalled itself), melting rubber smell and smoke/steam coming from under bonnet.

Radiator completely empty and water over the fan belt/alternator. Got a tow home by mechanic friend and he has diagnosed that a new water pump is needed (but there is a chance this is only part of the problem) and the water near the headgasket was just spray.

Will not have chance to look at it until weekend, just wandering if it just the pump or could there be other problems. Will get a mirror in the engine bay to have a good look at the whole side when running, when i have the time. Any further advice would be appreciated.

[miniman86]

could be head gasket, is it running?

[mini left in the park]

could be head gasket, is it running?

Been to have a quick look at engine, started up and ran fine, picks up revs ok. I can see water dripping down the block roughly in the water pump area and collecting nicely on the floor. There is a very small hint of oil on the rad filler cap (could antifreeze create this impression?) only had the car 3 weeks and used it for 1.5.

No burning rubber smells, just the smell of boiled rad water.

Fair enough if its the water pump gone, fairly simple job to do. But would this have resulted in the power loss? Did notice last week that when turning engine off after a little back road and dual carriageway fun it did 'overun' (if thats the correct term to use) put it down to carb setup (still running on original carb).

But hey its a mini thats the whole point of owning one..

[pikey7]

replace the head gasket anyway if you're unsure. kits are dead cheap, an it's a relatively simple job. Both HG and pump shouldn't take more than an afternoon to change.

[cooper_shaz]

The loss of power will be down to the car overheating, there is a chance that the headgasket is away, but
you will not really know at this point without further checks.

If you are changing the pump, you should change the by-pass hose (small hose behind the pump, they are bad for failing and only cost about a pound.

[Sprocket]

yes,power loss can be atributed to over heating, but do remember that if there is no water in the cooling system that the temp guage will not indicate that it is over heating.

[Sam]

replace the head gasket anyway if you're unsure. kits are dead cheap, an it's a relatively simple job. Both HG and pump shouldn't take more than an afternoon to change.

Surely you would do a compression test before you attempt to change a HG?!