Quoting: Cunning Plan
Called ECP this morning
Not overly impressed with ECP. I arrived to pick them up on Friday after work to be met by a guy on the front-desk who I had to tell 4 times that I was there to pick up a water pump. The conversation went like this:
Me: "Hi I am here to collect water pumps for a Jeep Cherokee"
ECP: "Ok"
Me: "The registration is X"
ECP (typing away): "Okay Sir, so you are here to collect oil pump."
Me: "No, water pumps"
ECP: "Okay, what car is it"
Me (thinking WTF): "It's a Jeep Cherokee"
ECP: "Washer pump for a Jeep Cherokee"
Me: "No!!! Water Pump for a Jeep Cherokee, I called earlier, there should be two ordered for me, I spoke to Robin, is he available to speak to?"
ECP: "Water Pump, oohkay, what's the vehicle reg?"
Me: "It's X"
Sure, it could have been an off-day for him or I could admit that perhaps he didn't understand because of how I said it, but seriously, dude
Anyway, after that, all I wanted to do was get in the car and get on the road to travel to Norfolk (where all my tools are) before the traffic gets heavy, so I did not check the boxes.
The next morning I got up to change the water pump, but experience told me, before everything is apart, I should check the boxes to ensure that they are the correct parts. The boxes were extremely damaged, I think both of them had been used as footballs. Not filling me with confidence, I decided to check for damage and after looking at each pump I noticed that neither had the vital O-Ring seal included, even after specifically asking EuroCar Parts (<for the benefit of Google) on the phone before I ordered if they included the O-Ring seals, which I was given the response of 'Yeah they should do... yeah'.
To be honest, I could take a small amount of the blame as you could say I should have checked whilst at ECP, but after dealing with the challenging chap on the front desk and after being told that they would include the seals, I just didn't think of it at the time.
So, first thing was spent driving into Wisbech to the Hydraulic engineer to get some seals made.
Fortunately, they were open on the Saturday and made some up for me within minutes.
Then, in an attempt to get at the water pump, I took most of the front end apart, but I still could not get at the bolt that was at the tightest angle.
I always start with the hardest fixing first, as you know if you can get that out, you can do the rest, otherwise you disturb the seal by loosening the easy ones, then discovering that you cannot get to the hardest one
Bearing in mind that it is not a leak, it is a 'seep', I thought it is not urgent and I would have to suck up the wasted hours taking everything apart, to put it all back together again and fill it back up with coolant, then bleed the system, without actually repairing the water-pump seal with the intention of attempting it again with an adjustable-headed ratchet spanner. I did not really have a choice as the Cherokee is my daily driver and I needed the car for work
So the plan is to fit the new pump when I am confident that I can get the bolts out.
HOWEVER, I noticed, especially this morning since it was 0-2 degrees and the noise is usually at its loudest when it is cold, the engine noise had gone
It sounded completely normal
So I am assuming, it was something un-important rattling around, perhaps near the radiator where it expands and contracts with heat.
