frozen block

[onemoremile]

Left a friend's house Sunday afternoon and the water pump belt made a hell of a noise and went up in smoke. There has been a little coolant leak somewhere so distilled water was added every week or two. On Friday I picked up some UV coolant dye and a black light bulb but went to a gallery opening instead of tearing into it.

Now the space heater is running full blast in an effort to thaw the garage. I left a few Nalgene bottles full of distilled water around the garage last night to act as melt indicators. The car's temp gauge showed 27f so it might not be too bad.

[Don Supreme]

So, no damage?

[djwimbo]

Did you upgrade to the metal impellar water pump? If you're rockin a plastic one it's possible that some ice got in there and cracked the impellar blades.

Best of luck dude, I'll help if I can, you have my number.

[AudiA4_20T]

I love the bottles as melt indicators... Small things like that are what set aside an engineer from a tech... Anyway good luck man, I'm sure you'll be fine. Its the beauty of working on your own car that lets you understand what happened when something goes wrong

[Don Supreme]

I love the bottles as melt indicators... Small things like that are what set aside an engineer from a tech... Anyway good luck man, I'm sure you'll be fine. Its the beauty of working on your own car that lets you understand what happened when something goes wrong

indeed.

[onemoremile]

I can't remember which pump is in there. The heater has been running about a half hour with the new propane tank. It looks like I'll pull the bumper and ac condenser off and use my heat gun to warm the radiator core.

The block should be empty. It was steaming as we coasted home. At least I've got the UV dye and blacklight now so after wiping it down and checking it over I can leak test it. A friend just dropped off a new belt and jug of coolant. I should have picked up a water pump too but there is no easy way to do that now. If it is bad I'll ride my bike to get one tomorrow morning. That is, unless Dan wants to bring one over and help me wrench tonight.....


I hope the impeller is ok. The pump was frozen and the pulley didn't move so hopefully the ice didn't crush it.

[onemoremile]

I love the bottles as melt indicators...

The slush bombs are working like a charm.

[onemoremile]

Vents had some coolant residue from the steam.

[onemoremile]

Here is a clean pic to tide you over while I venture back out to survey the situation.

[TomRitt18944]

I have the same issue... Sucks, I thought I had enough coolant but definetly not! Going home to thaw it now

[onemoremile]

It takes a lot of heat. It is very warm in there now and things are still slushy. I'm going to go back out and put the little ceramic furnace in the footwell and aim it at the recirc intake. Then get the defroster blowing on low with the recirc on it becomes a nice little recirculating hotbox. This blows the warm air through the heater core to thaw it.

[djwimbo]

I wish I would have read this earlier. I gotta run into G-Ville in <1hr and I was busy dealing w/ school crap since I got up (1pm).

Yea, I'm going back to school. I finally got the balls and motivation to do it.

[onemoremile]

Congrats on getting balls. That must make a lot of things easier.

My neighbor was running errands and picked up a water pump for me. The whole thing too, housing and all.

It is fully thawed and now I'll pull the bumper, move the ac condenser to the side, and remove the radiator. I can spin the water pump with a cordless drill to see if it does anything. Might as well replace it at this point.

[djwimbo]

Congrats on getting balls. That must make a lot of things easier.

When an animal is cornered and given one reasonable option, what outcome would you expect?

The debt is the only thing I'm worried about though. School payments in 4-5yrs are going to be BIG. Ah what the hell right? By that time I'll be a genius(with at least 2 degrees), and be doing cool stuff.

[onemoremile]

Nice. Man with a plan.

Got it apart and drained. It was just above freezing this morning which will really help. Got the heater going now and will do some work in a moment.

[Nebone]

Shitty that this happened. How about an oil pan or engine block heater for the winter nights?

[djwimbo]

Shitty that this happened. How about an oil pan or engine block heater for the winter nights?

Fixing the coolant leak and therefore not running distilled water would have solved the issue.

BUT as we all know, there are times where issues that seem small need to be ignored for a task at hand. Sometimes it bites us in the ass, and other times it's not a big deal.

Like my half moon seal on the timing chain tensioner. I have it, it's like $6-7, I just don't feel like putting it in. It's not really leaking that bad yet.

[Poopie]

i had a good amount of distilled in my coolant and it froze over one winter. Luckily it was just the heater core that was frozen. It took about 9 hours to defrost.

[Spykce]

Wow man, hope everything goes smoothly from here on out. I had to drain my girlfriend's cabriolet and put coolant in before winter because of the same leak issue.

[AudiA4_20T]

I have the same issue... Sucks, I thought I had enough coolant but definetly not! Going home to thaw it now

your posts are always so random Tom ha. Hows the B5?

[Nebone]

Do those coolant mix testers from AutoZone work on G12 (should). My girls car (12V VR6) has a slow leak and a mix was being added for a few months now.

[onemoremile]

I found the leak is at the back of the block. It is where several hoses and connections are in a small area so this kinda sucks. It almost looks like one of the metal retaining clips is missing. That UV dye is some good stuff.

The car has been running fine for about 5 hours now. I returned the water pump. Total cost was about 35 bucks for a belt and coolant.

[sean1.8t]

Do those coolant mix testers from AutoZone work on G12 (should). My girls car (12V VR6) has a slow leak and a mix was being added for a few months now.

i'd like to know too. im in the exact same boat

[djwimbo]

I found the leak is at the back of the block. It is where several hoses and connections are in a small area so this kinda sucks. It almost looks like one of the metal retaining clips is missing. That UV dye is some good stuff.

The car has been running fine for about 5 hours now. I returned the water pump. Total cost was about 35 bucks for a belt and coolant.

That coolant flange is a PITA on facelift cars, you might be lucky b/c you're an AEB though(easier).

Do you have a mirror to look around back there? I've seen those flanges crack, O-rings leak and the plastic clips holding the CTS in break.
I forget how much I paid for mine, but they're not unreasonable. Make sure you save or replace the O-ring for the CTS if you pull it out. Otherwise you'll have a bigger mess than you had before. I did that myself once.

[TomRitt18944]

your posts are always so random Tom ha. Hows the B5?

Hahah yea been busy as hell lately, b5 is good, not much new, needs a tune bad as usual



It warmed up to about 20 yesterday afternoon and that was enough to melt all my frozen water/coolant. Good to go now

[317ssayzarc]

Mr Ritt in tha hoouuusssee!!!