Help for a friend

[D4MJT]

I have a friend who has no luck with cars, and his current chariot is a UK 'P' plate MX5 1.8.

On his way into work this morning, it appears to have been running a little rough, and has now dispersed the contents of it's cooling system onto the car park floor. He says it's leaking coolant from the back of the engine.

Basically, he's fallen on hard times a bit recently, and I'd really like to be of some help to him, so I'm intending to get spannered up this weekend and go and fix it. Any ideas or suggestions from people with the 1.8 lump? Are there any suspect pipes near the back of the engine that may have perished and provide a convenient easy fix?

I've not heard lots of stories about engines giving up with these, so I'd suprised if it was anything terminal.

Any answers / advice / questions to ask would be greatly appreciated, cheers folks!

[MX-5 Lazza]

It'll most likely be one of the pipes to the heater. Which in turn probably means there is an oil leak from the CAS O-ring.
Not a difficult fix by any means. So that'll be the heater pipe (probably safer to do both), CAS-O-ring, Cam-cover gasket and a small amount of instant gasket. A timing light would help too...

[D4MJT]

MX-5 Lazza said:

It'll most likely be one of the pipes to the heater. Which in turn probably means there is an oil leak from the CAS O-ring.
Not a difficult fix by any means. So that'll be the heater pipe (probably safer to do both), CAS-O-ring, Cam-cover gasket and a small amount of instant gasket. A timing light would help too...

Argh!

Hm, I'll get on the hunt for a timing light, and also look into the pipes. I doubt I'll be able to get a hold of them for the weekend! Shucks.

[VladD]

D4MJT said:

MX-5 Lazza said:

It'll most likely be one of the pipes to the heater. Which in turn probably means there is an oil leak from the CAS O-ring.
Not a difficult fix by any means. So that'll be the heater pipe (probably safer to do both), CAS-O-ring, Cam-cover gasket and a small amount of instant gasket. A timing light would help too...

Argh!

Hm, I'll get on the hunt for a timing light, and also look into the pipes. I doubt I'll be able to get a hold of them for the weekend! Shucks.

I had this problem with mine last year. Getting the spring clips off the pipes is tricky, though there is a special tool that will do it, but I doubt you'll want to splash the cash just for that.

Tool

[Richyvrlimited]

D4MJT said:

Argh!

Hm, I'll get on the hunt for a timing light, and also look into the pipes. I doubt I'll be able to get a hold of them for the weekend! Shucks.

Order now from MX5parts and you'll more than likely receive them tomorrow.