Overheating Leon Cupra

[aefish]

I have a 2002 Leon Cupra (180).

Driving along the motorway yesterday the temperature rose to 120 and the alarm sounded (as you would expect).
When I turned the engine off it went straight back down to the usual 90 but as soon as i drive above 65mph again the temperature starts to increase above 90.

It does not appear to be losing water.
The fans appear to be working.
There is no exhaust smoke to suggest head gasket.

Any ideas?

 

[Madmile]

water pump.

 

[aefish]

Sorry to appear naive, is this an easy fix?
Is the water pump quite accessible?

 

[Madmile]

Not sure mate try a search i am sure people have had them fail before.

 

[honeyman]

Not very accessible sorry, mine was £200 done at the dealers, not a long job I don't think. is your car under warranty?

 

[Teq]

Sorry to appear naive, is this an easy fix? <- took 3 hours for a mate to fit this, had a new cambelt while this was apart though, I asked for what was left of the water pump and it had broken in 2!

 

[Ruddmeister]

Sorry to appear naive, is this an easy fix? <- took 3 hours for a mate to fit this, had a new cambelt while this was apart though, I asked for what was left of the water pump and it had broken in 2!

Yep mine was in 3 bits, it's a good 3hours work as the cam belt has to come off as well........quite involved.

Not Cheap!

The water pump impellar breaks in to 2 or 3 bits because it's a plastic component sat on a metal shaft to drive it........sh1t design......I did find another company selling a Brass replacement info in this thread.....page 3 onwards in particular


http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=62741&page=3&pp=20&highlight=fans

 

[CupraR-Rog]

If you're outside warranty, spend the money on the brass pump... If you're inside warranty, get the stealers to sort it, and keep your fingers crossed with another plastic pump!!

You would have thought, with water pumps being a common failure on these VAG engines across the marques, that someone's head would have rolled in the design team for allowing such a weakness!! I mean, save a buck by going for plastic, spend hundreds per car fixing it when it goes wrong!!

 

[realman]

I have a 2002 Leon Cupra (180).

Driving along the motorway yesterday the temperature rose to 120 and the alarm sounded (as you would expect).
When I turned the engine off it went straight back down to the usual 90 but as soon as i drive above 65mph again the temperature starts to increase above 90.

It does not appear to be losing water.
The fans appear to be working.
There is no exhaust smoke to suggest head gasket.

Any ideas?

happend to me it was the coolant pump impeller had broken cost me £408 at a dealer!

 

[andycup]

waterpumps

Hi Guys,
this is my first post, but 've been lurking for a long time, getting all the info I needed to buy my first leon cupra, having the manditory coil failure and then having a swimming pool in my passenger footwell

Ah the joys of modern motoring.

This kind of rang a bell with me to what happened to my last car, and is why i'll probably buy a genuine seat/vw group water pump when I come to have the cambelt changed [and tensioner].

My last car [audi coupe, had it a long time] died when my pattern german waterpump bearing failed and shredded the cambelt. Amazingly it still ran on three cylinders somehow [v6] until I stopped and it wouldn't start again.
I also had a boxy shape audi coupe years ago and the tensioner bearing went on that, luckily not destroying the camblet in the process. This problem area that has hit me twice so is my main concern with the cars I own now.

My point here is this. If the water pumps are failing early and leading to overheating, then that's bad. BUT, if all that's happening is the impellar shredding then i can live with that. Bummer, but relatively easily fixed and not the end of the world.
If on the other hand, this seized the pulley and so destroyed the cambelt making a nice mess of the valves on the cylinders, that's another matter.

Anybody had an engine mash with a seat pump, or just overheating because of the waterpump? I'll have the shitty plastic pump if all that happens is it just breaks up, ta muchly.

Of course, if anybody knows of a pump where the bearing is bulletproof, please tell me. I'll sleep easier after having one fitted.

Andy

 

[cupralite]

Mine had same symptoms at 34k miles and it was the water pump. They changed the pump, cambelt and tensioners - £390.

As for the impeller - I was told that it was a brass one in the replacement pump - Awesome GTI did it. Hopefully it is a reliable part that isn't going to knack the engine!

 

[Simsy]

Had the same thing happen to me last Mon! My Baby is back on the road now,
the water pump was replaced with a brass impeller version & the cambelt changed etc

Final cost all in £210.96. (Still hurts my poor wallet though!)

I cant stress enough that the plastic impeller water pumps are pants! Why
VAG decided to use them is anybodys guess, (bound to be cost!)

All I can say is if your next having your cambelt done in the near future I would suggest you invest in a brass one!

Heres the damaged one!

 

[CupraR-Rog]

£210.96?? Labour for free or something?? You did replace the tensioner, didn't you?

 

[Simsy]

Yep £210.96. Cambelt, pulley wheel tensioner etc all changed.
All done by a local repairer not dealer. (Friend of the family is a mechanic)

Still it's a lot of money for a stupid repair when VAG should be thinking of quality not economy, plastic on metal C'mon doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that it wont last long. VAG need to address this.

Arhhh Rant over!

 

[JBS Sales]

As far as I am aware the genuine ones now are coming through with the metal impellers on them.
Yes is a very common problem and we have done loads.
We now replace cam belts on the petrol engines at about 60,000 miles with the water pumps at the same time.
But for you that have the problem earlier this does not help.
Sarah

 

[mattycupra]

glad i found this thread through a search!

my MK3 is having exactly the same issue at the moment, glad to hear it pretty much sounds like the water pump, its what my mechanic said as well as he has done 2 VW's with exactly the same symptoms

 

[honeyman]

the only cocern I have is I had my waterpump replaced but not my cambelt I did mention but they said it doesn't need replacing till 100K plus just hope it'll be okay

 

[JBS Sales]

Well you have to take the cam belt and tensioner off to replace the water pump.
So to me what would be the point in not replacing them?
Oh well each to their own.
Sarah