Well aware that it was not a good option to be driving around with coolant leaking out from the engine, the owner of this 2008 Renault Kangoo 1.5 dCi decided to pop in to see me.

The water pump had a failed bearing, and was leaking coolant. As the water pump is driven from the back face of the timing belt it was possible that the problem could develop, which I discovered it had. The play in the bearing had allowed the belt to start skipping over the water pump pulley, this had warmed up the belt, which then caused damage to the idler pulley.

The leak would have been the least of the owner’s problems if this had been left to develop. The belt would not have lasted much longer.

A new timing belt kit along with the new water pump was needed, to put this Kangoo back into a safe running condition. After around four hours labour, and a box full of new parts, the motor was up and running, with the cooling system bled out and leak free.

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