[supertinu]

Hey Folks, I have a 2004 Ikon Flair with 65K Kms on the Odo. Offlately I had been noticing some minor leakage of coolant causing spotting on the parking lot floor. Couple of days back i felt that the leakage was definitely increasing and took the car to my neighborhood garage Sejal Motors. The mechanic traced the leakage to be coming from under the exhaust manifold and felt the gasket might be the issue. Then he decided to check on the condition of "DUMMY CAP" (This is something i never knew existed on a engine but apparently its present on most engines and is a form of access to the coolant path plugged with some form of metallic cap). He used waste cloth threads to clean the cap of grit and grime with a screwdriver, and the moment he touched it the cap gave away and caused a hole with coolant leaking out due to high pressure. The mechanic might have used extra pressure but I wouldnt blame him cause i did notice the cap was completely rusted and corroded.

Current status is that i brought a leaking car back home which is just 100 meters from the garage and garage is trying to source Ikon's dummy cap and manifold gasket to replace and fix the problem. The car is grounded for the moment since no way it can make it to A.S.S 5 kms away without any coolant unless i tow it. I am having some doubts on where should i get it fixed and needed suggestions from folks on the forum here.

• The dummy cap is right below the exhaust manifold and as per mechanic entire manifold assembly probably including the injectors on top will need to be removed to fix it. Is it a good idea to let them do it or is this a sensitive job for the A.S.S. Ofcourse i dont want to get ripped cause the moment A.S.S touches an 8yrs old car they will run the bill into multifolds

• I personally do trust the mechanic and think that as long as hes confident and is able to source original parts, i will let him do it else A.S.S it is. My concern with orig part is that if he does some JUGAAD and it fails in future while me being on the road it can lead to serious consequences for the engine.

Suggestions/inputs welcome

[condor]

From the general feedback, you could go to Sejal motors. Reg the parts, I had recently enquired about some parts for my car, and he had in turn checked with one of the A.S.S before giving me feedback. It looks like he will get the Ford parts itself.

[Catalyst_delhi]

Dummy cap = Coolant plug. This is to prevent the block from freezing and cracking over under sub zero temps. You can go to a FNG. This is not critical for indian(mostly) climates. It is a brass or soft metal plug.

[supertinu]

Originally Posted by condor

From the general feedback, you could go to Sejal motors. Reg the parts, I had recently enquired about some parts for my car, and he had in turn checked with one of the A.S.S before giving me feedback. It looks like he will get the Ford parts itself.

Will stick to Sejal but will go on weekend so that I can stand and watch rather than leaving the car behind on week day. Hopefully he can source the part from Ford.

Originally Posted by Catalyst_delhi

Dummy cap = Coolant plug. This is to prevent the block from freezing and cracking over under sub zero temps. You can go to a FNG. This is not critical for indian(mostly) climates. It is a brass or soft metal plug.

Thanks Catalyst. This was completely unknown to me. I get the idea now but true that in Indian conditions not very useful.

[condor]

Originally Posted by supertinu

Will stick to Sejal but will go on weekend so that .

My suggestion - avoid the weekends. There'll be a crowd, and you may not get the required attention. Typical of any place, not just Sejal

[supertinu]

hey All, update on the problem. Sejal motors fixed the problem about a week ago. I had to leave the car at the garage over the weekend because he could not source the right sized dummy cap and the car without the intake manifold was lying paralyzed in his garage. Posting some pics taken during the repair.

The dummy cap that caused it all


Dummy cap's location, look at the area circled in yellow


Complete shot of the engine without the intake. Please ignore all the dust


This pic shows the new cap in place with araldite around it. Fixed for good.


The car is working fine. Overall satisfied with the workmanship. However on a side note, Suresh from Sejal motors told me that he sourced the part from Ford and had to pay for the labor as well since they wouldn't give spares. But one of this main mechanic had happened to tell me separately that they got it made at a lathe machine . Anyways he probably overcharged a bit but I am not complaining since the garage is 1 min from my house and saved me all the hassles of towing etc.

[condor]

Good that this is resolved.

Originally Posted by supertinu

.. on a side note, Suresh from Sejal motors told me that he sourced the part from Ford and had to pay for the labor as well since they wouldn't give spares.

I cant say anything about the contradicting information there, but the part about the labor charges is true. Ford is among the companies that have this restrictive practice of not selling even simple spares. Even things like wipers. They will open a job card against a car, and then bill parts + labor. I have paid labor even for something as simple as wipers, even though I replaced the wipers myself.

[supertinu]

Originally Posted by condor

Good that this is resolved. I cant say anything about the contradicting information there, but the part about the labor charges is true. Ford is among the companies that have this restrictive practice of not selling even simple spares. Even things like wipers. They will open a job card against a car, and then bill parts + labor. I have paid labor even for something as simple as wipers, even though I replaced the wipers myself.

You are right about the labor part. Even I have had to pay labor while buying wipers. Hopefully the case that is running against bunch of auto manufacturers around non fair practices wrt to spair supply will yield some result.