FAQ

1992 Ford Aerostar. Should there be coolant or oil leaked. I found a big puddle of coolant on the ground of my garage. It was on the passenger side. Some said it is the water pump. Others say it is the head gasket. What do you guys think?

dai

if it was the head gasket it would most likely be in the oil or blowing out the exhaust
more likely a heater hose,core plug if you are seeing a large puddle

Raylo

I'd really look closely at the water pump. Those can indeed leave a puddle when the shaft seal goes. Dai's suggestion to look at hoses is also right on. It can also be an intake manifold gasket if it fails at one of the coolant passages.

And I'd ask your friends who said the head gasket what makes them think that. A failed head gasket can do all sorts of things, like leaking coolant, leaking oil, mixed oil and coolant, steam out of the oil filler, etc, etc. But with just a leak and no other symptoms I think it is unlikely to be your problem.

You might refill the coolant (with water only), run the car and look for the leak.... and look for other symptoms that might indicate a bad head gasket.

FAQ

Thanks both of you. I will take another closer look. My friend saw some leak from the top part of the engine and the coolant in the radiator went way down. Another friend of mine will come to take a look at it as well. If it is the water pump, I may have it fixed. Otherwise; I 'll let the van rest in peace. I don't want to spend more money to fix up an old van.

mack1

Hi FAQ and welcome to TSF,

Blown head gaskets are almost always between a combustion chamber and its nearest water port. That said, a good place to look for it would be to open the radiator cap, fill it to were you can see the water. Start the engine and see if air(exhaust) bubbles show up in the water flow. If blown bad enough, it can get into the oil pan. The oil will look milky on the dip stick.

Look the hoses over closely where the heater core comes through the firewall to the engine compartment. That's on the passenger's side and hoses are bad about leaking when they get old and crack.

regards,
Mack1

FAQ

Thanks. I checked and there was no coolant in the oil. My friend looked and believed it was the water pump. So I decided to drop off the van at a garage and asked them to check it out. If it is the head gasket, the van is toasted. If it is the water pump, I'll have it fixed providing that it's within $500. I check out a new Honda Odessey which costs $32000 and up. So $500 is about one month interest. It's worth the bet. :)

FAQ

Have the van checked. You guys are right. It wasn't the head gasket. It was the timing cover gasket. Clean and replace gasket, replace water pump, change oil because of gasket debris in it. Change belt because it was soaked in coolant. The bill came to $940. 2/3 0f the $940 was for labor of 5.3 hours.

dai

the labour charges are as bad as here,i am glad i do most of my own work

Raylo

Interesting. But I don't really understand why a timing cover would leak coolant. I assume that it was leaking oil and they replaced that whilst doing the water pump? Or perhaps some of the timing cover bolts terminate in a water jacket and lost their thread sealing?

Yes labor rates are sky high here, too. I cringe when I have to take a vehicle in for work, which is very very rare. I need to take one in for an alignment after replacing the ball joints. I can't do an alignment... and I may never attempt ball joints again, either. What a PITA!

Congrats on getting your car back on the road. May it give you several more years of good service.

mack1

Hi guys,
Repair costs are high everywhere. Last work I had done cost about $200 and they only replaced the sparkplug wires. Must have taken them a long time to find the problem. I taught my son to do his own repairs and now am teaching my grandson the same. I don't care if they pay to have it done, just don't them to have to from lack of mechanical skills. The grandson has a worn out Ford pickup. He has learned more than I wanted to teach.

FAQ, glad you got your Aerostar repaired and that it wasn't a head gasket... That could have been a real money problem at those rates.

Regards,
Mack1

FAQ

Yes guys, I was ready to tell the mechanic to shoot the Aerostar to put it out of misery if it was the head gasket. I think I found a honest garage here as compared to a Ford dealership. Last time I had a power flush at the dealership, I thought it would be great idea if they could replace the radiator hoses at the same time. The bill was over $500. They charged me $250 alone for labor to replace the radiator hoses. I asked them what kind of power flush didn't required to take at least one end of the radiator hoses off? I didn't get far with them. Pay if you want your van back. That is their attitude. No wonder everybody buys Japanese vehicles.

Raylo

You want to hear another scary one? I was at the Chevy dealer once upon a time to buy a part and asked a service advisor out of curiosity what it would cost to change the spark plug leads on my 1994 LT1 Camaro. I don't recall the $ amount but he said it was an 8 hour job by the book. Yikes!

Then later when I had the intake, timing cover, and the exhaust y-pipe off to put in the new cam I figured doing the wires would be easy. Not so. Even with all that stuff out of the way it looked like a brutal job. Since the OEM wires were in good shape I just left 'em be. These manufacturers seem to think that long service intervals means they can ignore accesibility in the designs. Or maybe it's intentional to make more $ on service?

FAQ

I come to the conclusion that most dealerships will use the repair shop to milk every single cents out of their customers by any means even if the practice is unethical. I don't think the Japaneses dealerships are exception but at least their vehicles are built more reliable. That means you don't get rip off that often. :)