Plummeting MPG in my cousin's A2

[dan_b]

Indeed so, but given that they bought this car 2nd hand from someone who claimed to have maintained it as per the service record, only for me to discover basic faults like there actually being no apparent antifreeze in the coolant, and that the air and fuel filters looked as if they were about 100 years old, not to mention it had a blown intercooler, leads me to wonder if even though the cambelt appears to have been changed, the water pump is highly likely to have not been.

Does a failing water pump give any symptoms before it dies completely?

 

[Guest 4123]

How long has it been running without anti-freeze? If the pump has plastic vanes, these might have been stripped off by the ice! One advantage of a plastic water pump - a metal one might have broken the cambelt under the same circumstances.

RAB