On Tuesday I had a leak......No, not that sort of leak!, more the sort you have that causes your cars cooling system to loose 2 litre's of coolant every 21 miles!.
Tuesday morning was one of those "leaky" days.I set off from home as per normal but noticed within less than a mile that the engine temperature had attained "normal" far too quickly for such a relatively cool morning. By the time I had reached Newark the gauge was reading one needles width to the right of the gauge and at this point I decided that it was worrying me enough to warrant a more in depth investigation.
I pulled into the fuel station just outside Newark on the A1/A46 junction roundabout, and after popping the bonnet I was rather dismayed to see a pool of water forming under the car, below the radiator. Closer inspection revealed that it was not actually the radiator which had sprung a leak, but the water pump itself which had developed a hole in it's case no larger than the head of a pin, and which was now causing the pump to squirt a fine jet of fluid out which then hit the radiator and then flowed onto the floor below the car.
After speaking to a nice fella called John at the garage I was pointed in the direction of the outside cold water tap were I filled up a 2 litre milk carton. I got the whole 2 litres of water into the expansion tank and even then it brought the fluid level up to barely minimum. I filled the bottle again,called work to tell them my situation, then drove carefully back to Sleaford and spent the rest of the day fitting a new water pump."Vee" belt and topping up with fresh water and antifreeze.
The cost of the repair? £5 for the Vee belt, nothing for the donated "recon" pump and a few skinned knuckles which I gained trying to free several well seated bolts!.
Can't complain though, the pump had given 23 years of service before it finaly gave up the ghost, and I would guess that there are few cars that can claim that accolade :-).
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