I love my Supra....but

On friday (12th) Carmel and I left here at 4am for what was meant to be a fun filled day doing a booze cruise. We had planned it and talked about it for ages, we both work stupidly long hours and many of mine are commutng hours, so it was meant it be a really special day for us.

So, I was starting to get a bit concerened when we got onto the A14 and I still was not getting any warm air out of the heater, it was a bitter cold morning, but my temp gauge was steady bang in the middle so I thought oh well probably an air lock in the heater and thought when we stopped I would have a look.

After driving through miles of freezing fog on the M11 at a snail pace we missed our Eurotunnel slot and got shoved back 3 hours. Wasn't too concerned as I thought this would give me a while to have a look at the heater. I was a bit shocked to find that my coolant level was low and it took about 2 litres to bring it back up. When we left the terminal to get on the train the heater was fine and all seemed well.

Gets about 10 miles from Calais and started overheating like crazy, pops the bonnet and its puking out of the waterpump. Was a bit p*.*ed off because I had changed this on July 07 and only done about 32,000km. But in fairness I have had all sorts of pullys etc hanging from it when I was driving the superchager so put it down to my own stupidity.

So we had a very cut down day in France to what was planned and headed back to Eurotunnel.

Gets to Folkestone and tops up and in no time I had to pull over onthe M20 to fill up with water again. At this stage I knew I was not going to make it back home. So next junction was Ashford, pulls off and get the RAC out, 3 hours later we are being loaded up on a low loder and heading home.

Next day goes out in the corsa van and the F*.*ing water pump on that falls to pieces....but thats another story!

So, get a new water pump for the supra and also a new crank pully bolt as last time I had real problems getting it back in after the real problems getting it out..

Spent all afternoon getting the water pump off and the new one on, and lets be honest, compared to some cars the supra water pump is not the easist to change. Radiater out, timing covers off, crank pully off, timing belt off, then the reverse with the additional messing around with the timing belt tensioner. Only to find that the shaft on the old pump felt ok, bearings felt good.

This surprised me becasue the way the water was gushing out I expected the shaft to be all over the place. So put it all back together and it seemed to be ok and then as I was watching it the temp gauge shot over. Yes its true! I took all that off and didnt change the thermostat! What a tw*t. Top hose pressured and bottom hose stone cold, how could I miss this.

So I guess that on the way down last Friday the stat had stuck open and then when I had topped it up with cold water it slammed shut and stayed shut and then the pressure in the the head was such that the shaft seals in the pump gave out. So fed up with it today. Why did they design it that you have to take so much off to change the water pump. Still I just hope and pray that I have not done any lasting damage and that a stat will fix it and I have not blown a HG or worse.

I love cars and the warm glowing tingling feeling you get when you strip your knuckles and thumb and finger nails everytime you work on Supras especially in the December rain.

Bad happening dude..... Thermostat is a service part for me every couple of years along with the coolant.

Bad happening dude..... Thermostat is a service part for me every couple of years along with the coolant.

Yeah I was stupid to go to all the effort with getting a new crank bolt and water pump and not to even consider the stat. Oh well always tomorrow!