Ready to stick a fork in my eye

Before you go using a fork on your eyeballs, take a little time and relax. Things could be worse. First, I would find another shop to have your vehicle checked. If an experienced technician doesn’t know that the first thing to do, after running into a check engine light, is running an OBD-II diagnostic to find where the problem might be, then I would think he doesn’t know very much about today’s cars and engines.

Next, I would take the car to a shop that might have an idea about what might be going on. Yes I know a dealership costs a lot more than an independent shop, but they may have a better idea of what to do with an OBD-II scanner. And, since they are a dealership, they should also have the latest and greatest software for their scanners.

You mentioned that when you returned to the mechanic that they found metal pieces in the oil pan. If that’s the case, then there is something going on; it’s likely that the new water pump or a related piece of the engine has suffered a major failure, though you don’t say so. Indeed, there are a couple of things that I really need to know if I am to help you out fully. First, has there been an increase in the temperature of your coolant? Second, and this relates to the OBD-II scan, are there any new trouble codes that have been generated? Until I have that information I really can’t give you more than just an informed guess.

My guess is that not only has the water pump failed again, but, when it failed it took out another key piece of the engine. It’s possible that the failure took out the pulley that turns the serpentine belt that runs several items including things like the alternator and the like.

In other words, there has been a major failure in your engine that will take more work to figure out. Still, the key things here is pulling the trouble codes from the Engine Control Module (ECM) so that the problem can be diagnosed more exactly.