62 plate DS 4

Did you photograph it to show the customer on return!!

We've got a DS3 in at the moment (Sorry for crashing thread) came in for coolant leaks, one at the front side of engine and one that seemed round the back around the middle area of the rear side facing cylinder block. While the engine assembly was fully installed and built I'd no proper way of inspecting the rear side facing cylinder block components, but I knew something was leaking badly down there. I was asked to do the job and I really didn't want to get involved with it as the engine is definitely shoe horned in there. I can't say for sure that my working methods here for this job are the correct way or not, but it worked so far for me...

I got the two young lads to remove the battery tray assembly, followed by the air intake assembly, and then got the young lad to remove the thermostat housing on the rear of the cylinder head face. ( Looking back now at what he has done I think I should have supervised more closely) The heater matrix hose has a C type securing clip that locks the hose to the thermostat housing when fitted. The hose is damaged on the fitment end, which is caused by wear and tear and cheap plastic material, however, the hose is not damaged but the C clip is missing. We can't find it and the dealership today said that the cost is £43 for a hose.

Yesterday I started to put the thermostat housing on the cylinder head and (my fault) after fitment I found that the electrical sensor in the housing is a two pin fitment and my old one is a four pin. I removed it to send it back but then the parts department sent out a wiring harness conversion. So next week I'll need to refit it. I started to assembly the components down the rear side of the block adjacent the bulkhead but soon found out I had no bolts etc to refit anything, the young lads had managed to loose all the parts to reassemble the engine components. By that time I'd really had enough. 

To get down the rear side of the cylinder block to this plastic pipe that supplies coolant from the water pump I had to remove the front engine mounting, the fuel injection common rail, and the inlet manifold. Now getting the inlet manifold out was not very straight forwards and was a struggle, however, putting back will be much easier now that I've had to renew the oil filter housing because I've had to remove the radiator and the exhaust manicat to change it, so moving the engine towards the front of the car now provides significant working area to the rear block face area and I can even get my BIG head in there as well LOLs   

Next week is the rebuilding of the nightmare stripped mainly by two seveteen year olds who have lost most nuts and bolts to rebuild it!!