Guys at admin board, please allow me to revive this thread as it is related to an used 2003Wagon R.
About 10 days back my bro.in.law wanted to purchase an used Wagon R and wanted my expert advise :P . As I was the lone soul in the family who had sound knowledge about autos, I was the chosen one. They on fact had zeroed in on a 09' top end white one. When I was taken for the final inspection, my devil eyes went in for those any thud / bang stuff ( accidental damages ) and found that it did had a major front end crash with the A-pillar crumpled so straight away nodded a No', for safety reasons.
After inspecting a couple more cars for sale, I zeroed in on this 03' VXi in ash gray mettallic silver which had an almost intact shell and an ok engine which had clocked over just 70k's, which felt great to drive. It was picked with a bargain for 1.71 lacs who was quoting 1.85. The car looked and felt mechanically perfect, although I could feel like the engine had clocked more than 70k, like approx 100k's. It had some boggles with electricals as the car had been at the used car dealers for a while. We also did a trial run for about 100kms to our native from Shimoga. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the car was a KA04 registered and picked up by us at Shimoga. After that short trip I came back to Blr.
Just before the dussera they wanted me to get behind the wheel for a trip to Horanadu, a piligrimage as they were yet to learn driving. But my friends had booked me in advance for a trip to Goa. So they hired a known driver for their voyage which was approx 100kms in the first leg and had a trouble free drive. But just after they started from that place after worship something went wrong with the cooling system and the coolant started to leak and they could smell the oil frying in the engine. They were a bit terrified as it was getting dark in the midst of the naxal affected forest roads of the western ghats. So I got a call by evening about the issue and wanted advice. Luckily the driver was experienced one and with the help of passing cars topped up water regularly and managed to reach a village and with the help of local mech they made it to a relative place before late night. But due to dussera fest the shops and mechs were unable to fix the problem completely and the next day they managed to reach Shimoga. Me after our outing from Goal, reached Shimoga and inspected and found the engine still in healthy condition and thanked the driver for a great job in such conditions.
I later opened the bumper and found that the radiator's top plastic housing had cracked near the front edge for about 4 inches. As the shops were still not opened on Sunday I thought a dose of super glue ans araldite epoxy should hold for an 100kms trip for another ritual at our native and did a diy. I also found that a clamp holding the radiator was missing for some reason and a thin metal wire was all that did little or no job there. But after a couple of hours job, found that it was not enough and returned after a 10kms drive.
So the next day we took the car to a local garage in the evening after returning from the native by a friends car. We got hold of lower hose, clamp with rubber grommet as MGP, but couldn't find MGP for the Radiator. But luckily the shop had Delhpi radiator and picked up with no hesitation as it was once the OE supplier to MGP.
Sorry for the lengthy story but thought it would be better to share all tiny details as it matters. Actually now with these details I hope to get expert and experienced inputs which will be immensely appreciated. Also when all these happened the temperature guage never crossed the mid way to the hot zone despite water gushing out in the leak. Also I dont have much onhands experience in the mpfi engine as my drive is a carb'd zen. Please help me to help out these guys from unwanted troubles. The mech wanted to open up the cylinder head for facing up, but I thought it was not necessary as there was no stains of oil in the water body or at the top of the radiator opening. Nor did the engine had a spoilt oil. The power delivery was pretty smooth, although I could hear the tappet were a tiny bit more noisier, but that could not be more. Any other pointers to look out for signs of any damage now or later soon that I have failed to guess? Please respond at the earliest guys, as I will be leaving to the garage soon now.. Thanks in advance 
Last edited by Rehaan : 30th October 2012 at 13:37.
Reason: Merging consecutive posts
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