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[thebluestraveller]

Hi guys, please help. I had a coolant leak, so booked it into a garage to be fixed and ended up paying nearly £600 for a new water pump, tensioners and cam belt. As the garage said my water pump was leaking. I still however have a coolant leak of about 1 pint a week. I had a friend (mechanic) look at it and he seems to think its a pipe thats located on the top of the engine towards the rear under the dash and behind the the big alloy thing on top of the motor (sorry I dont know what its called). He looked with a fibre optic camera and tried tracing the leak and thats where he thinks it is. My car is a 2.6 v6 cdx on a 51 plate. Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
Eddie

[albitz]

It sounds like you have a leak from the heater bypass valve. Its a common problem. From memory the part is under £40, no special tools required, its just a bit awkward to get to. It is a black plastic item, about the size of a fist and looks like a mini starship enterprise. Im sure there is a guide in the relevant section. If it isnt the valve itself it might be one of the pipes going to/ from it.
If I were you I would go back to the garage and demand a lot of money back from them. It sounds like they misdiagnosed the problem and then charged you a ludicrous amount of money to fix it. The cambelt and tensioners dont strictly have to be changed while doing the water pump on the v6, although if they arent reasonably new it would be good practice to change them "while your down there".
Are you certain that they actually changed all these parts ? if they didnt then you could unknowingly go past the interval for changing them and risk the engine having its internals for lunch.
I would be seriously considering giving trading standards a ring if it were me.
Imo if they were reasonably competent they should easily have found the leak from the HBV (you and your mate did) so I would worry if they have done the other work properly, if at all.
One of the experts on here would have changed your belt/tensioners/water pump for a lot less money than they charged you. I would guess at about half that amount.

[YZ250]

As Albs has already said, the Heater Bypass Valve is the favourite place to start with as it is so common for them to leak. You can sometimes influence the leak by changing the heater settings. Mine gushed out when set to the highest setting.
See the guide:

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1193594464

HTH
Regards
Alan

[alank46]

Of course it could be that you had 2 leaks.  One from the water pump and another from the HBV, who is to say at this stage.  Has the overall leakage rate slowed since the work was done?

Best lesson learned from this is that if any further work is required on the car check to see if one of the OOF mobile mechanics is near enough to you.  They know the Omega inside out and charge a fair price for the work, although I believe it may cost you bit in bacon butties!
Alan

[fiend61]

the heater bypass valve seems the likely candidate, you should be able to squeeze your hand down between back of engine and scuttle and feel for dampness, when mine went i had coolant running down under the car rear of engine , quite easy to change via the guide on here but more work by feel than seeing  this is the HBV http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vauxhall-Corsa-B-Heater-Bypass-Valve-Vectra-B-Astra-MK3-/220689954645?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3362257755 good luck 

[Elite Pete]

£600 for a cambelt tensioners and water pump I don't know where some garages get their prices from

[fiend61]

need mine doing soon pete 

[Elite Pete]

need mine doing soon pete 

Just say when your ready

[Varche]

Heres hoping it is the heater bypass valve. Easy enough to change  but use genuine VX item.

If it persists then it maybe a very awkward to get at down the back of the engine pipe join or a core plug. I think mine has this problem. Are these fibre optic cameras easy to use and cheap to buy? Ebay.co.uk? I just live with water loss and top up with antifreeze/water mix.

[tri6t]

Just replaced my bypass valve - coolant disapearing but not at a steady rate; it was ok for a while but would dump it without any trace under the car so I suppose it evaporated quickly.  The valve looked fine with no crud build up to show it was leaking, but when I pressurised the system (low pressure air line on a modified tank cap) it peed out!

When putting it all back, I came across a pipe with nowhere to connect to.  Thank god for the forum!  The third FAQ let me know it is a breather for the auto box............

[Entwood]

Due to the way they work .. HBV's can leak in an irregular pattern .. sometimes when HEAT required, others when NO HEAT required .. as the HBV controls the water flow to the matrix it depends on what water flow is asked for in relation to the point of leakage ......

When mine went I was able to drive with no leak at all simply by selecting a cold temperature ... obviously the leak must have been on the matrix side and with no flow .. no leak ... flaming cold for 3 days until I had the time to fit a new HBV ... but it worked for me ..

[geoffr70]

Unfortunately it sounds like you've been ripped off, even if it needed that work or not! As already said, not much for part (I paid 12 quid for pattern HBV, i know it will fail earlier though), easy to do just a bit fiddly. As said I'd be straight down to trading standards.