Zafira -Engine Cooked after Coolant system Failure

colino

No point guessing at a fix or replacement until you know what made it go bang. Lots of maybes could have happened and when you tot up the list, if your not spanner twirling yourself, can easily add up to more than the cars worth.
Daily and weekly checks are meant to show a boring, no change to the things you are checking, it isn't that you expect to blow up the tyres daily or top up the expansion tank every week, the checks are there to check that everything is still in order. On large cooling loss too, if there is anything like an average case, initially the temp gauge will go up as there is less volume in the system still trying to do the same cooling job and/or the water jacket is being blasted by hot compression gasses. This might happen for a very short time that the driver doesn't notice (or happen not at all with fly by wire ecu controlled indicators, not gauges) and then the gauge will fall as the sender isn't in enough, or any, water to give a reading. Instantly reduced interior heating is a pretty immediate indicator that there isn't enough water in the system, although may drivers would simply plough on: If they were travelling at speed, not alerted by cylinders dropping out and lost performance until something more interesting happens.

motorguy

Any word back from your mechanic O/P?

bigjl

Marktheshark wrote: »

The 1.8 16v is a engine with a strong reputation for popping head gaskets.
It is not a "big repair" for a skilled mechanic, rather quite a routine one they should be more than skilled to tackle.
Takes about 6-8 hours spread over 3 days if they have a contact for the head skimming.
From what you have said so far it does not sound like your mechanic is up to the job or he would gave already contacted you with a price.

Haven't heard about th 1.8 16v being prone to HG failure.

Unless they are prone to poor maintenance and they get older and this leads to coolant system leaks and resultant HG failure.

We had Astra 1.8 Autos at work from 2001 to 2011, in use 24/7 until 2009 then they were semi retired as spare vehicles, the newest being 53plates.

Never heard of any HG failures when they were being properly maintained as like many older vehicles they were placed in safety only maintenance towards the end, and ran into the ground, and I had one with an overheating problem which I used as a runaround when doing Audits.

You needed to use the heater when stuck in traffic to stop it going in the red but on the move it was fine.

It still never lost coolant and there was no contamination of oilnor water and it never pressurised the expansion tank.

So in my experience that lump is pretty much bulletproof.

mark55man

sorry everyone - yesterday was a long day at work - definitely getting feedback today - thanks for your patience

mark55man

OK so been to the garage
* when they refilled the coolant system - it leaks (pours) out driver side - near the water pump
* they have towed it and bump started it and engine sounds dreadful - crankshaft banging type problems
* they absolutely restated they could not see it being fixed within the warranty limit of £1000
* They saw no evidence of low coolant level
* They felt rapid loss of coolant wouldn't have caused immediate malfunction (eg at 70 at midnight so they feel it was something else)

This makes me think that I maybe have cause and effect wrong given the lack of temperature gauge readings and the rapidity with which power was lost

I hope the above makes sense - I felt that I got good info, but that should of an expensive full court press the secret of what happened is in there

AdrianC

mark88man wrote: »

This makes me think that I maybe have cause and effect wrong given the lack of temperature gauge readings and the rapidity with which power was lost

When did the oil level last get checked...?

mark55man

Again - that was a month ago with DS

bigjl

If the bearings in the water pump have gone then any noise could be caused by the timing belt having jumped a tooth

colino

Water pouring out of a wrecked water pump, with the associated mechanical racket of it run off its bearings and the driver was unaware?

motorguy

colino wrote: »

Water pouring out of a wrecked water pump, with the associated mechanical racket of it run off its bearings and the driver was unaware?

+1

And it would be very rare - but in fairness not unheard of- that a water pump fails instantaneously. They usually leak and / or are noisy first.

Either way - wear and tear on a worn out item on a 12 year old car. Wasnt present at time of sale (otherwise the car would have been noisy / leaking water), therefore no come back on the dealer.