MX5 engine problem

[petclub]

Hi, I went to help a friend who had broken down at J26, M1 yesterday. I'm not very mechanically minded but said I'd post and ask for comment so she can be prepared for what the garage might say.

For a few days she heard a ticking/pinking noise when under acceleration. Yesterday, she entered the junction and the engine died. When I got there I noticed there was water at the bottom of the radiator (looked quite corroded). Turned it over easily, but it showed no sign of catching.

The RAC arrived and said the radiator had gone, and probably the Head Gasket but there may be more damage The car was towed away to a local garage.

I guess a fitted radiator will be about £100. I assume there'll need to be new gasket, and perhaps damage to the head or block. The car is about a '96.

Any thoughts (e.g. possible prices/diagnosis/solution?) Dave

[petclub]

I've just heard the diagnosis is a new radiator, head gasket, 2 valves to be re-ground, head skimmed, replaced fluids, new cam belt. Including labour about 850-900. Does this sound about right? Cheers

[sharky55]

Depends on the labour rate but it sounds like a ball park figure

[paolow]

petclub said:

Hi, I went to help a friend who had broken down at J26, M1 yesterday. I'm not very mechanically minded but said I'd post and ask for comment so she can be prepared for what the garage might say.

For a few days she heard a ticking/pinking noise when under acceleration. Yesterday, she entered the junction and the engine died. When I got there I noticed there was water at the bottom of the radiator (looked quite corroded). Turned it over easily, but it showed no sign of catching.

The RAC arrived and said the radiator had gone, and probably the Head Gasket but there may be more damage The car was towed away to a local garage.

I guess a fitted radiator will be about £100. I assume there'll need to be new gasket, and perhaps damage to the head or block. The car is about a '96.

Any thoughts (e.g. possible prices/diagnosis/solution?) Dave

Sorry - youve lost me on a couple of things - how do you know there was water at the bottom of the rad - how could you see it? surely the fins would occlude any vision?
Has there been any signs of leaks? any symptoms other than noise? take off the filler cap - is there any white and creamy mess in there? take out teh dipstick - what does it say? again - any white residue on it? does it turn cleanly?
also - not being funny but does she monitor the cars water/oil etc levels at all?
If the water was as you say 'badly corroded' what did it look like? presumably murky and brown?

Ah! you mean water on the outside of the rad i assume?
that being the case then - well - yeah - sorry - but a new rad, HG, head skim and cambelt are the minimum to be done - that alone will be circa £500. The rest of the work - new fluids etc will probably mop up the rest so yeah - sad to say but shell need to dig deep!

Edited by paolow on Thursday 15th June 01:55

[petclub]

Hi thank you both for your comments.

Yes, I didn't explain too well. When I opened the bonnet there was a bit of water on the outside of the radiator at the bottom, and that's where the paint/coating was not intact and it looked like corrosion. There was also water standing on bits of metal below the rad.

I may be wrong, but I suspect the oil/water are not regularly monitored (have to admit, I'm not always very good at it either!), so I was wondering how long the problem had been developing for. She said the ticking/pinking noise had only been for a few days.

The water in the radiator was certainly murky. Although it's a lot of money, I thought it did sound about right for the amount of work needed. Cheers, Dave

[MeLLoN Stu]

sounds like classic headgasket failure due to coolant loss.
surprised its taken a couple of valves with it, but i guess it can happen.
have you shopped around at all or investigated any other possibilities? no idea what they go for but you might be able to source a 2nd hand engine or head from a breaking car for a fair bit less, and radiator. obviously this carries with it an element of risk but if you get it from a member of a trusted place, such as an mx5 owners club member or something, it'll be fine in most cases.
have they said how much the head needs skimming by? check how many thou they want to take off and how many is acceptable.
if its skimmed excessively the compression ratio may be altered a bit too much. that said, i don't suppose its a real problem on an N/A car.

i'm not sure on prices, as i tend to do a lot of mechanical jobs myself as i'm handy with spanners, but it doesn't seem to unreasonable taking machining and parts costs into account. any idea what their hourly labour rate is? it pays to ask and shop around.
if you can do the work or rather your freind can, its easily do-able in a weekend if you get the machining done in advance. strip the head down and get it machined, might as well have it acid bathed while its there for a few quid extra. build it back up and get it back on and set up etc, then give the cooling system a good flush through, get the new radiator in, and away you go
you'd save a mint in parts costs etc.

[petclub]

Thanks Stu, good point about the skimming I hadn't thought about that. Also, your comments about how long it'll take. The garage she took it to said it wouldn't take very long for them, but it sounded a big job to me (but there again, any mechanical job is big to me!!). Many thanks, Dave