When I came in the garage this morning I saw a puddle of redish/orange water on the floor, as it also smelled weird I opened the hood and the cooling reservoir was all empty, as I poured water in it it ****ed as much out of it around the rear corner at the reservoir side. Called the garage and they came to flatbed it to their place (it's an automatic). There they have the impression it is the thermostat, but normally when it is gone it leaks with a couple of drops like that but here it really 'streamed' out as fast as I could fill the reservoir. Only thing I can think of is that last month we did a 476 kms trip and under the way by filling up fuel I also asked to fill up the reservoir as it was below the minimum, so they filled it up till the maximum and since than no problem whatsoever. So overnight it all got wrong, it looks as the whole gasket was gone as otherwise impossible to have the water leak that fast. I hope that what they say, that incorrect cooling stuff was introduced, will not have attacked other pieces of the engine, I therefore asked them to rince the whole circuit including the heater matrix and radiators etc... before filling it up again. Car will be ready either Thursday evening (very unlikely) or Tuesday (next week) evening. As I have to go to hospital on Friday morning (remove a varicose vein) and stay until Saturday incl., also that I am not allowed to drive a car for a week, it means it doesn't bother me too much, but I am afraid if indeed it was due to a wrong cooling product more parts of the engine could be involved and that these could show up one after the other for a longer period.
Anyway hope for the best.
(While I was in the garage I told them about the problems in getting the fuelfilter mounted back correctly again and they told me they first spray WD40 on the receiving plate first, I had the intention to put some grease on it and have another go for it so it is possible this is the trick to do, first grease/spray something greasy on that plate, than introduce the lower lug partially as well as position and introduce the vertical 'fin' and than push the two parts (filter/pump housing and the receiving plate) together and when they touch completely slide the housing down to have the two lugs and the fin 'click' in place. The guy at the garage offered to do it for me while he's working on the car so I told him he could go on with it. (The offer came after I told him I was busy, on two occasions, for a whole day without success, he said in the beginning he had also some problems with it but now it takes about 10 mins.) Hopefully this info. is of help to somebody ? Ciao.
Ps: As I felt rather mad this morning and all shook up my wife said that in the worst of cases the only thing to do was buy a new car, so we already agreed on the colour for the possible replacement RAV4....
Anyway hope for the best.(While I was in the garage I told them about the problems in getting the fuelfilter mounted back correctly again and they told me they first spray WD40 on the receiving plate first, I had the intention to put some grease on it and have another go for it so it is possible this is the trick to do, first grease/spray something greasy on that plate, than introduce the lower lug partially as well as position and introduce the vertical 'fin' and than push the two parts (filter/pump housing and the receiving plate) together and when they touch completely slide the housing down to have the two lugs and the fin 'click' in place. The guy at the garage offered to do it for me while he's working on the car so I told him he could go on with it. (The offer came after I told him I was busy, on two occasions, for a whole day without success, he said in the beginning he had also some problems with it but now it takes about 10 mins.) Hopefully this info. is of help to somebody ? Ciao.
Ps: As I felt rather mad this morning and all shook up my wife said that in the worst of cases the only thing to do was buy a new car, so we already agreed on the colour for the possible replacement RAV4....
