Water Pump *feeling scared now*

[Chi]

Hi all. Just joined the forum.

I have a DS3 1.6 2013. It has done roughly 44500 miles. Went to Italy in it a few weeks ago and noticed the round water tank kept needing filled as it was dry every couple of days. Fast forward to today and it is in at the Citroën dealer with a knacked water pump. After googling it, I have been reading that the head gasket is usually next to go. If this is true can somebody please explain why and if anyone has experienced this before? I really didnt expect the water pump to need replaced after it only being 4 years old.

Thanks Chi.

[BenS]

In my year and a bit on the forum, I haven't heard a single person mention a head gasket failure. (Of course, there may be threads about it, but no new ones in the last year, so it can't be common). That said, not seen this fault to this extent before either.

If the pump is out, then I'm guessing you had no coolant movement other than by convection, so the losses were from it evaporating off? Surely the temperature gauge would have been in the red all the time and the engine cutting out from overheating?

I'm thinking there must be a radiator leak too, for it to drain that quickly? Especially if it was often dry then the engine must have been overheating like mad!

As for "X has broken after only Y number of years", cars have issues all the time. Stuff often goes wrong in the first 3 years, but is fixed under warranty. It would be amazing to see a modern car with zero mechanical or electrical faults for the first 5 years.

Do you have any more info than "1.6" engine? There's about 5 or 6 different 1.6 engines for that year.



Now, people with more mechanical knowledge, supply the correct explanation please...

[Chi]

In my year and a bit on the forum, I haven't heard a single person mention a head gasket failure. (Of course, there may be threads about it, but no new ones in the last year, so it can't be common). That said, not seen this fault to this extent before either.

If the pump is out, then I'm guessing you had no coolant movement other than by convection, so the losses were from it evaporating off? Surely the temperature gauge would have been in the red all the time and the engine cutting out from overheating?

I'm thinking there must be a radiator leak too, for it to drain that quickly? Especially if it was often dry then the engine must have been overheating like mad!

As for "X has broken after only Y number of years", cars have issues all the time. Stuff often goes wrong in the first 3 years, but is fixed under warranty. It would be amazing to see a modern car with zero mechanical or electrical faults for the first 5 years.

Do you have any more info than "1.6" engine? There's about 5 or 6 different 1.6 engines for that year.



Now, people with more mechanical knowledge, supply the correct explanation please...

Thanks for your reply. Strangely the temperature gauge has been sitting normal the whole time. After the timming belt going in my old C4 i am very particularl in checking all the levels now, and more so with me driving it to Italy. Im not exactly sure what 1.6 it is ( i will check). Im not overly clued up on citroens just now. (had previously owned at Glanza and Skyline until a few years ago).
Spoke to a mechanic earlier who had mentioned that the belt was more likely to go after the water pump as that seems to take it with it. Just really paranoid now my beloved wee car is going to die on me.

[V3nn3tj3]

As long as the engine didn't get to hot the head gasket will be fine. You would have noticed by now if there was something wrong...
If it's a thp the electric waterpump will have had a few rough weeks but it should be able to handle it. As long as the water was not blocked at the waterpump (which i think it didn't as the engine was never to hot) i don't think it will have damaged anything else.

[V3nn3tj3]

And like ben said, have a look where all that coolant is going!