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Water pump and plastic housing failure
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Clive980   
Tue Oct 29 2013, 09:05am
Joined: Jun 03 2012
Member No: #901
Location: Leeds
 Just to see if anyone else has had the same problem. I changed my alternator pulley and belt a couple of weeks ago. All seemed fine except that I could hear a bit of a intermittent rattle, which seemed easier to hear from the inside of the car. Anyway my suspicion was that it might be my timing belt tensioner losing tension and boucing at certain rpm's. Also my C6 has done 127K miles so it getting towards its change interval.

Anyway on the way into work yesterday I noticed I was feeling a little chilly and that my heater was blowing cold even when I increased the temp up to the max. So I switched on the temp gauge display and kept an eye on the engine temp. A couple of miles later I exited the motorway and then it started to rise, it got to one blue segment below the top and when I pulled up I was enveloped on steam.

I turned off, popped the bonnet, lifted of the plastic engine cover and lots of steam was coming out of the centre of the engine V. So I got recovered to my local garage, when unloaded we tried to start the engine the battery was now flat which seemed strange as all was fine with no charging fault showing when I pulled up. Anyway the garage went to work, they confirm that the water pump had gone and water was leaking through the bearing.

However I got a further call later to say that the plastic housing, which I think is the outlet housing was also leaking. I've had a look at this today and indeed it does appear to have split along a bonded seam. I post a photo soon. I'm just puzzled as to how this breakage has happened. Was it a result of the overheating causing excessive pressure in the system or maybe damaged when removing the water pump perhaps?

So has anyone else experienced anything similar?

Looking at citroens service site the plastic tank that has split is called the outlet tank (part no: 1336 Y3).

How do I upload an image?
cruiserphil   
Tue Oct 29 2013, 04:21pm

Joined: Jan 24 2010
Member No: #38
Location: Celbridge
 Clive980,

Plenty in this forum on the tank as some of us haven't been so lucky as to get to your mileage on a tank before replacement. In your case the overheating most likely caused it with a combination of the pressure and tank age. My first thought was that the tank failed and that the perceived water leak at the pump was caused by this and that the pump was not actually leaking. But in fairness to your garage, at 127k miles, it's reasonable to expect that the water pump was on the way out.

On the tank failure mode, mine failed on the seam also! Consider yourself fortunate that you spotted the overheating in time. One member lost an engine over this problem. Member GMerry has an excellent suggestion on fitment of a float switch to the header tank (C6 doesn't have one!). Search the forum and you'll find contributions from many members on the subject!

Regards,

Phil C.
vargo   
Tue Oct 29 2013, 09:09pm
Joined: May 25 2013
Member No: #1310
Location: Leicester
 Hi all, I got 2 failures both at the seam.. 1st I discovered steam coming out from the bonnet (driver's side). When I opened the bonnet, lots of steam coming from the header tank area. Once it all cleared up I thought it was the header tank, on closer inspection I found little steam leaking/coming from under the plastic engine cover.

Once the car got recovered to my local, the plastic housing was found to be the at fault.I managed to find one on ebay (a 2nd hand one from a C6 breaker in Essex). This was fitted a week later But was leaking at the seam (exactly the same place)..[common problem???]

I decided to get a new one from the Citroen main dealer cost me around £60 I think.

All good so far...

Rgds
Zed
Clive980   
Thu Oct 31 2013, 02:00pm
Joined: Jun 03 2012
Member No: #901
Location: Leeds
 Just picked my car up, £460 for water pump and outlet changing. Problem is it is now down on power, and after a mile or so the error message "risk of DPF blocking" came up. So I'm guessing I need to fill her up with diesel and hope it does a re-generation cycle. The worrying think was that when I arrived back at work there was lots of white smoke coming out the back and when I looked underneath the DPF housing was glowing red hot. Any suggestions?

Cheers
Clive
michaelb   
Thu Oct 31 2013, 02:41pm
Joined: Nov 17 2009
Member No: #14
Location: London
 From your OP it sounds like you boiled off the coolant. I hope you haven't twisted a head and blown a head gasket.
Tjensen   
Thu Oct 31 2013, 03:01pm
Joined: Jul 17 2012
Member No: #954
Location: Bergen
 Could glowing DPF box and smoke after a DPF warning be the regeneration working as it should ?
Clive980   
Sat Nov 02 2013, 04:46pm
Joined: Jun 03 2012
Member No: #901
Location: Leeds
 Problem solved, power restored, they'd not connected the inlet pipe correctly to the EGR housing and it had popped off. Now need to go for a spin to get the DPF regen'ed.
cruiserphil   
Sat Nov 02 2013, 06:46pm

Joined: Jan 24 2010
Member No: #38
Location: Celbridge
 Great news Clive,

Enjoy the drive!

Phil C.
 

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