[cpyder]

Well, not the dust. More like coolant.
I was at my friend's house and his little brother came in drenched. (pouring down rain yesterday) His friend was broken down... 2001 ZX3 DOCH Zetec. They heard a loud pop and then lots of smoke... from the hood and from the air vents.
I ended up going to help since not one of em had any mechanical inclination.

30 feet away from the car I could smell the steamy coolant (is that an oxy-moron?) Max (My friend's little brother's friend.. .. confusin aint it)
I ask him if he knew what might have happend.... he shruggs his shoulders. All they know is that the radiator overflow/reserve is empty and the car is heating up after it steamed. Well, all the hoses look fine at a glance. All the clamps are attached and tight. I wrap my hand around the upper radiator hose where it attaches to the thermostate and the hose just colapses in my hand.There's about a 4inch long gash going the length of the hose on the upper bend.

That was at 7:15pm..... they want to drive it to Ford to get it fixed. Service closed at 5pm and parts closed at 7pm.... and I doubt this kid had the cash to get it fixed at ford. So I tell him I will do it for him, he just has to buy the parts. Should be less than $45. All he needed anyhow was the thermostat and upper radiator hose.

So we head off to Advanced.... they had didn't diddly.
OK... we went to Auto Zone.... they had less then diddly.
OK... so we went to Pep Boys... they actually had the diddly, but were renovating and relocating all the merchandise and could not find the diddly.

And NOT ONE OF THESE FRIEKIN PLACES HAD THE BUNDLE OF RADIATOR HOSE WERE YOU COULD CUT IT TO SIZE..... WHAT A JOKE. They only had the pre-cut pre-shaped kits.... So at PepBoys I told him to just get 2 packages of hose repare tape. Figured I'll patch it up so he could at least drive it home and to the Dealer in the morning to pick up the parts to fix it when I get to the house.

$4.... and 11pm later its all patched. I did not remember it being so damn hard to remove a thermostate... what a pain in the butt. Without the thermostate there is no seal where the upper hose attaches, so it has a very unoticable seap. We went back to the house and tested the thermostate. Boiled water..... sucker did not open right away. It sat there, you could see the spring flex.... then it just popped open.

For now he can drive it around and not damage his car, hopefully today or tomorrow he can get the parts so this can be fixed properly.

(this was his first lesson in, "HOLY CRAP... CAR JUST BROKEDOWN SMOKING IN A DOWN POUR WHILE THE STREET IS FLOODING.") <~his words as we pulled up to assess.


Is there anything that I might have missed? I know I am not an expert, but this is something that I have delt with on my Focus when the thermo went sticky. I just do not want to do more damage than was already done.... O and no dummy light either. I don't think he gave the computer enough time to realize something happened.

 

[viney266]

You did fine, get it fixxed for him right away though, as he might be silly enough to drive it around and run it out of coolant...

One note, I prefer the local "old boy" auto-shops for that sort -of thing, they seem to have the parts and know more than all the new "chain" auto-stores.

 

[cpyder]

And are alot cheaper...

When it happend on mine, the Napa tech told me to just leave the thermo out. (I did not pay too much attention to that)

His reasoning is since it will never get cold enough to freeze or too hot (Miami) that the thermostat is a waste.

Anywho... Max's dad got paranoid and made him take it to the dealer. I wonder how much they are going to charge him... :0(

 

[jaimz]

us car guys don't know crap i guess let for brake it for you

in the summer i run my car with out a termostat sometimes. it's great! i actually made what i call a "thermostat plug" when i can still have the seal for the thermostat housing and no thermostat

 

[penguin]

FYI, without a thermostat the engine will take longer to warm-up to optimal operating temperature, wasting some fuel and increasing engine wear. Whether this is significant or not, is debatable and depends upon a lot of factors.

Increased flow beyond the design of the water pump can also theoretically lead to cavitation in the water pump, which can damage the water pump in the long-term (typically this damage would be erosion of the impeller blades.) Again, whether this is an issue in real life depends entirely upon the specific pump and engine design and operating parameters.

 

[WD40]

^^^In addition to the above...
The water needs to stay in the engine for a certain period of time to absorb the heat.
If it goes through too fast, it won't cool the engine, and you'll be running hotter.
Same goes for the radiator.
Increase the flow too much (no thermostat), and the water won't have a chance to cool down in the radiator.

 

[jaimz]

yeah well, i know i'm not that much of an idiot my little thing i made is basically like the thermostat just without a plunger and spring. but a little smaller hole. so water does't flow through it. but it doesn't get stopped so it flows a little more. thats all.

 

[cpyder]

^^ interesting..

It cost him over $600 to get it done at the dealer. They charged him 4 hours to change the thermostat housing, stating it was damaged so they had to replace it.... WTF.

I removed the Thermostat housing and the thermostat... and had it all back on in a damn hour.... IN THE DARK. You tell me these morons get trained and take longer????

Their claim for it being damaged is that it was leaking... NO FRIEKIN DUHHH, there was not thermostat in there to make the seal. Who the hell are they jerkin??

Anywho.... he is writing Ford to find out what the deal is??? I told my friend to just speak to the service manager or the service writer and see if it can be resolved in house first... just to show a little curtousy.

 

[svtguy21]

haha that really sucks ass

 

[jaimz]

thats nothing!

i had to take my car to ford because i didn't have time to fix my problem (my eletrical system was shorting out somewhere and randomly shutting down)

so i take it to a place called EASTGATE ford in dayton ohio (never go there) first off they charge me $150 to fix the eletrical problem. i was VERY happy with that price. but when i came to pick up my car it was spewing coolant out of it.

i asked the service manager what the deal was and she said "oh it was like that when we pulled it into the garage" so this jerk off was trying to make me think, a guy that knows a shit load about cars, that some how my car's cooling system jsut kinda exploded while sitting there over the weekend or something.

the leakage was SO bad that it would empty the resevore in just under 10 minutes! so i couldn't drive it home with out a water truck driving ahead of me with the hose hooked up to my car.

so i had no choice but to pay them $350 to replace my thermostat housing and thermostat. then they charged me $26 a gallon for coolant, they put it took 2 gallons (i want to know how they fit 2 gallons of coolant into a 3/4 gallon cooling system) and the funny thing is, they topped off my fluids (which includes coolant ) for free when they fixed the electrical problem.

bunch of douche bags

to make a long story short. i had to pay them $350 to fix something they broke (and probably on porpose)

 

[Malakai]

on a porpoise?

 

[cpyder]

^^ hahaha,,,

Damn jaimz, that really sucks.

You know... when you picked it up and they did not tell you anything... they it happened on their watch. You should not have paid for that. That in Fla... is called a lawsuit. If it was doing that when they pulled it in the garage, by law (in dade county, fl) your machanic is to call and notify you before they repare it. Any repares they do without verbal or writen concent..... you are not liable for..... but if it breaks because of it, they are still held accountable.

So if they repare by-the-book.... then why was it cheaper to replace your thermo housing ??? I think I will just call a few dealers to inquire on the cost of this replacment, if I get different answers.... someones gonna get it. (my friend will be madder than I)

 

[jaimz]

well they didn't just go and repair it. they drove it out to me and it was spewing i couldn't drive it anywhere!

oh i was pissed off. all the managers and lot tech and server writes and everyone were in on saying "yeah it came in like that" so there was nothing i could do but bend over and take it. OH god they pissed me off. so later i when and got a fule filter and valve cover gasket from planet ford in dayton and i was telling the parts guy what had happened to me. and he said "wow i would have punch that b*tch in the face" then he told me "we get alot of new customers here because eastgate ford likes to [][][][][] everyone they can"

and they will to, they'll stick it to you like micheal jackson chasing a 5yr old boy