Caution - coolant pipe failure
Discussion
As a Noble owner for the past year and a frequent reader of the discossions that go on here, I feel I have a point of caution which other owners may want to watch out for.
My car has been loosing coolant for a little while - and having had the same experience on two V8 Esprits which both required engine rebuilds I was getting a bit worried since the warranty is about to expire! - so I am keeping a close eye on the levels until it goes back to the dealers on Monday.
Anyway the other night just underneath the expansion tank I noticed a very frayed looking pipe at one of the blue annodised aluminium 3-way connectors. A gentle prod caused the pipe to split and to deposit the hot coolant agross the engine bay.
Once cooled down I tried to shorten the pipe just to get me to Monday and to the garage. However the pipe has been so badly affected by the heat that it is now possible to just pull it apart with your fingers - more akin to hose pipe that is twenty years old - not barely a year.
All other pipes within the engine bay seem fine and are from a different manufacturer - so this may be where the problem lies. The pipe that split is marked as Balflex Europe Multipurpose Oil Air Water in blue writing. It may be worth having a quick check around to see if you have any of these - my opinion is that this is a very cheap and substandard part to be using - fortunatley on my car this pipe broke at home - I try not thinking of the consequences had in gone on the road and fried my engine.
Oh and a note to anyone from Noble reading this - fit a low coolant warning light!!
My car has been loosing coolant for a little while - and having had the same experience on two V8 Esprits which both required engine rebuilds I was getting a bit worried since the warranty is about to expire! - so I am keeping a close eye on the levels until it goes back to the dealers on Monday.
Anyway the other night just underneath the expansion tank I noticed a very frayed looking pipe at one of the blue annodised aluminium 3-way connectors. A gentle prod caused the pipe to split and to deposit the hot coolant agross the engine bay.
Once cooled down I tried to shorten the pipe just to get me to Monday and to the garage. However the pipe has been so badly affected by the heat that it is now possible to just pull it apart with your fingers - more akin to hose pipe that is twenty years old - not barely a year.
All other pipes within the engine bay seem fine and are from a different manufacturer - so this may be where the problem lies. The pipe that split is marked as Balflex Europe Multipurpose Oil Air Water in blue writing. It may be worth having a quick check around to see if you have any of these - my opinion is that this is a very cheap and substandard part to be using - fortunatley on my car this pipe broke at home - I try not thinking of the consequences had in gone on the road and fried my engine.
Oh and a note to anyone from Noble reading this - fit a low coolant warning light!!
It's a 3R - nearly a year old, 10k miles, 6speed/LSD/TDS. Overall really pleased with it - just the occasional minor niggle, and the one major one when it left me stranded with a failed ECU - oh and the air con doesn't work properly any more; and the turbos only show .5 bar boost, and not .7 as they used to - I hate gauges!! But other than that it still never fails to put a big smile on my face when I drive it.
ar-gto said:
It's a 3R - nearly a year old, 10k miles, 6speed/LSD/TDS. Overall really pleased with it - just the occasional minor niggle, and the one major one when it left me stranded with a failed ECU - oh and the air con doesn't work properly any more; and the turbos only show .5 bar boost, and not .7 as they used to - I hate gauges!! But other than that it still never fails to put a big smile on my face when I drive it.
Has anyone else experienced these small problems?
The fall to pieces continues!! Managed to get some new piping and splice it in to get my car back up and running again. Had another good look around the engine bay and found that the pipe form the air filter to the rear turbo had become disconnected from the turbo inlet. No apparent damage to the compressor blades - but it is no where near as clean inside as the other one! Who knows what foreign objects have been injested into the engine?
Has not cured the lack of boost problem - still no more than .5 bar on the gauge, and the engine definately flat spots at 6k rpm - has anyone else experienced this?
Has not cured the lack of boost problem - still no more than .5 bar on the gauge, and the engine definately flat spots at 6k rpm - has anyone else experienced this?
ar-gto said:
The fall to pieces continues!! Managed to get some new piping and splice it in to get my car back up and running again. Had another good look around the engine bay and found that the pipe form the air filter to the rear turbo had become disconnected from the turbo inlet. No apparent damage to the compressor blades - but it is no where near as clean inside as the other one! Who knows what foreign objects have been injested into the engine?
Has not cured the lack of boost problem - still no more than .5 bar on the gauge, and the engine definately flat spots at 6k rpm - has anyone else experienced this?
I agree with Dan. Get Trevor at Roush to take a look at it for you. They had to reset my ECU in the end as it had gone a bit peculiar!
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