FTO AUSTRALIA

Hey guys, I bought an FTO a short while ago was very cautious with the purchase as I know how difficult it can be to source parts for imported cars. Anyway, I test drove the car before I bought it, and it was fine. No problems. Checked out engine and all that, no worries. The guy selling the car appeared genuine, and has clearly looked after it.

Shortly after making the transaction, I noticed a noise coming from either the gearbox, or behind the dash (possibly engine) that sounded like a bird chirping. It didn't sound serious, but perhaps thats where I was wrong... The noise occurred when I was just 'driving', not accelerating, not braking, not changing gears... just cruising. Maybe it was a belt?

Anyways, before I drove home, I checked the coolant and oil level... they were fine. I'm not sure if the chirping noise was related to this at all... but I was driving along the highway thinking to myself how happy I was that I had a great FTO, when the car started doing weird stuff. The steering felt stiff, I couldn't change gears, and the braking was funny. I immediately pulled over and saw steam coming from the engine!!!

I popped the bonnet and much of the steam appeared to be coming from a split hose in the engine bay (im no mechanic, so not sure what it is). It smelt kinda oily, not like the car had overheated. I hadn't had any warning lights, and I hadn't noticed the temperature gauge go up at all, but you probably wouldn't either if you had just bought the car and were getting used to the dash...

I thought the car had overheated, so I put some water in it, but it didn't take much at all. So I got towed to the nearest town, where the mechanic told me that I had done the head gaskets, and possibly internal engine damage. (mind you these are country mechanics, but they might know what they're talking about). So I had to fork out more bucks to have my car towed to a Mitsubishi dealer, and I will find out on Monday what the real problem with the car is, and approximately how much it will cost.

Does anyone know what may have caused this problem, and has anyone had similar issues before?

Thanks

My guess would be one of your coolant hoses split, leaked most of your coolant out, your engine overheated badly warping the heads and destroying the head gasket which possibly let some coolant into your cyclinders.

Reason it probably didnt take much coolant is that you may have attempted to put it in while still hot and there may have been a lot of air in the system. First step would be to skim head back flat depending on how badly warped it is (baring in mind this will raise compression slightly which isnt necessarily a bad thing) and get a new head gasket and see if that will work. Of course that would be after eliminating other engine damage.

when you say there was a hose split, do you mean a fairly thick rubber hose at the front of the engine? if so you split your radiator hose which would be the most likely scenario as redline pointed out.. and yes your engine probably would be rooted if thats the case

in future when checking the engine you should squeeze the radiator hoses and if they squeeze in about 1cm or more they should be ok otherwise needs replacement. getting a qualified mechanic to check a car before u buy it is a good idea too.

anyway i feel for u dude bad luck hopefully you get out of it with only a blown head gasket

also if the guy you bought it off had a roadworthy certificate with the sale you might be able to get the mechanics who issued the certificate to foot the bill if they did a dodgy job and this happened within the duration of the roadworthy.

Thanks guys, I'll keep you posted on what the outcome is. Here's hoping the damage is minimal.

Turns out the head gaskets and engine are all ok, thank god!

The real issue was the water pump that died. Getting a new one replaced for $600... arrghh.

Can these things happen suddenly, or would the seller have known this issue before he sold it?

Hmm unless the seller had recently fushed & checked his cooling system, that woulda been a bit hard to know about. $600 aint too bad to swap it out... its in a sh*t of a position behind the timing belt & sounds like a gen article put it.

Yeah I've heard its a bitch of a position to replace, behind the timing belt. How long do you guys suggest FTO timing belts last, as it had one put on about 15,000kms ago... and interestingly in the service records, had another one before that put on about 45,000km's ago. So thats 2 timing belts in under 50,000km's. Bit weird perhaps? I thought they were meant to last about 100,000km's, but possibly a bit less for these cars?

You could have bought an aftermarket water pump for about $100!

Nacho wrote:You could have bought an aftermarket water pump for about $100!

You can get 'em for $80 but your average mechanic off the street aint gonna know that....

Timing belt lasts about 80000km. The reason you had 2 in the last 50000 is that when buying an FTO, it is a good idea to replace the belt if you are unsure when it was changed or if the car has been sitting around for a while (undriven). Quite a few people do this (me included). As the belt controls when everything goes up and down, really bad stuff happens when the belt breaks or slips (valves into pistons etc). Worth the piece of mind.