Right im going to appologize in advanced for my immense lack of technical knowledge regarding the workings of a car but ill try my best to explain the issue...My car (X reg fiesta Mk5) is leaking water from the water tank at an incredibly fast rate (were talking a single 10 minute trip to drain it fully), its apparant the leak is coming from either a hose or the outer housing of the pump/part of the engine that it first comes into contact with (I appreciate this is such little help, im afraid i just dont know names)...All im really looking for is if somone out there can say "Yes, this is a common fault with the X X X"...Feel free to abuse me for my stupidity but any tiny bit of information could be of great help when getting the problem looked at shortly, all im doing for now is using the car as little as possible and filling it up before each trip.

Thanks Guys n Gals

fill the tank up and let the car get upto temp and then pop the bonnet and listen for any hissing sounds, could be a pipe that has a pin prick hole in it. if there is no hissing then fill it up, start it up and look undneath the car to see if there is any water pouring out, if if there is then where the drips are comming from that will routhly tell you where its leaking from! if theres alot of water leaking from the cam belt side of the engine it could possible be your water pump. Also check under your oil filler cap for traces of whity gunk, if there is this then its a possible head gasket failure

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common place for a water leak on a mk5 is from the thermostat housing gasket.
the thermostat is located below the alernator on the zetec engined ones

Thanks for the replies guys, unfortunatly its quite a solom moment because I had somone with a little mechanical knowledge take a look at it and straight away pointed a problem with the head gasket, clearly somthing thats been wrong for a while. Im just slowly accepting my driving days may be numbers as my wallet cant finance basicly a new car right now O the joys of motoring.

Thanks Anyways.

If anyone has a rough idea of pricing to replace a broken head gasket on this model to help me brace myself for whats to come that'd be handy

The cost can vary massively, actual parts wise its cheap job, its the labour which does it.

taking a guess £300.

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what percy said is bang on the money. something you may want to be weary of though is, if the headgasket has gone (as your friend has told you) by driving it with no water you may have warped the cylinder head, if this is the case and its in tolerance it will need skimming (£20-40 is common price) but if its out of tolerance it will mean a new cylinder head which is definatly not cheap and would be cheaper to just replace the engine with a 2nd hand unit. what engine is in the car though as this will have an effect on the labour for replacing the head gasket.

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rs2k powerd escort mk4.....figured id be different!
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Cheers guys, had a mechanic look at it today and seems its just a gasket and not the head, bit of a relief as you may imagine, trials and tribulations of cars

if they didnt remove the head and check it with a straight edge i wouldnt be too happy just yet as thats the only way to check it fella. good new if they did tho

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rs2k powerd escort mk4.....figured id be different!
http://WWW.S2RS.CO.UK

Thanks everybody youve been a big help they've taken my precious car away today and they believe it to be a broken manifold (if ive spelt that wrong im sorry), apparantly replacing it is still quite a big job and can be costy, and rough estimates of a price for replacing a fiesta manifold?

Thanks Again

broken manifold causing water loss? never really heard of that before on a fiesta.
what engine is it?

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Is that the best you can do?
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2000 V70 T5 SE - 2.3, 5 cylinder, 20V, VVT, Turbo, 250bhp, cream leather, climate control, the works!

Its the intake manifold, the engine in a 1.3. Cracked intake manifold has been a problem on older fords so its not completly unheard of but its hard to get as estimate price online because there always on about big old american cars. Guess ill find out when he sends me the bill on friday asking for my legs