Hi

I recently had a core plug in the end of the inlet manifold on my 1.3 spring a leak. As I didn't have time to sort it I left it at the local garage but they managed to crack the manifold while withdrawing the plug.

I'm running it at the moment by using a short hose to bypass the manifold with the coolant but although it runs, the temperature sensor on the manifold no longer registers the coolant temp so I get some eratic running. When I find a Felicia breaking for spares it's either the later MPI or they're not prepared to split the parts off the engine.

Does anyone know where I can find a cheap replacement manifold for an N reg 1.3 that isn't an MPI in or around Warwickshire, please? The car's been really reliable (touch wood) and I don't really want to have to get rid just because of someone else's clumsiness.

Thanks

Mitch

With the inlet manifold, and presuming the crack is non-structural, you can go 3 ways:-

1) Chemical metal the crack.

2) Braze or silver solder the crack.

3) Miliput the crack (but this is a real bodger's option; not really for a car you want to keep)

I would make the garage pay for a new one, a friend had this happen on their metro, and they got the garage to pay for it.

They reckon it was a poor casting - a chunk of the manifold broke away as they tried to lever the plug out with a screw driver. I don't think an alloy casting would take that anyway but didn't feel confident arguing the point.

I was going to put a self tapper through the middle and draw it out, if that didn't work I was going to weld something to the middle to pull it. I'd also considered breaking through it to push it's twin out the other end and then do the same to the broken one. In the end I didn't have the time and wasn't sure where to get replacement plugs so took it to the local garage. Would have been a lot less hassle to have had a go myself now.

You're correct; the right way to extract a core plug is to put a self-tapper through it.