GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk2 => Topic started by: Ben Lessani on 02 December 2008, 14:08
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Hi guys and girls.
After an awesome holiday - I've come back to some rather rubbish news. I popped the bonnet on my beloved to find the expansion tank's contents were frozen solid, along with that, both metal pipes in the cooling system have burst and I have little hope for the radiator. I can't see the core plugs at the back of the block, so I don't know if they have blown out.
Does anyone have any advice as to what to do next?
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id say core plugs have gone too, get yasen a wee mirror and have a look. You have a nice few days ahead of you putting all that right, I'd have the waterpump off and pretty much all the coolant hoses out and give everythign a good check over. Heaster matrix may not have enjoyed the freeze either, suggest a new one is purchased and fitted :(
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Ouch! Glad I live in the pansey south. I've left two cars over winter with no anti freeze in and on both occasions no freezing occured.
Nick
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This is north west weather - I'm not even in Glasgow at the moment. I'm working over the week - and at night its going to be far too cold to work on the car! Man this sucks...
I can strip the bits off over the week and see how they've faired, annoying thing is I don't have a garage, so I have nowhere to put the car in the interim.
Do you know any good methods of pressure testing all the bits to ensure they're is no cracks or leaks?
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:undecided: Doesnt sound pretty, never really though anti-freeze did much :sad:
Hope you get it sorted mate.
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never really though anti-freeze did much :sad:
It's in the name :wink:
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Haha yer but I didnt think that the engine would actually freeze without it!
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Right, all in pitch black darkness, I've managed to remove the metal pipe, which has at least 1 hole in it. I've managed to snap a sensor wire from doing it all in the dark :(
I've pulled all the pipes from the expansion tank, matrix, pump, block and head and they were all full of slush. Fingers crossed that its not done any damage to any of these. I'm going to let these thaw out over the next day and I'll weld the hole(s) in the metal pipe.
I guess I'll have to improvise a compression test to make sure all the other bits are ok.
Lesson learnt here guys - get your antifreeze levels checked (most garages can check the percentage)!
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The ice in the block will take a while to melt as the metal will remain a pretty constant temp. I would see if you can rig up some kind of electric heater to shove under the bonnet to raise the temperature a little and assist the thawing. But be carefull of any petrol fumes otherwise you could start a fire.
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No need to get a garage to check it - We have this little dropper test with little balls inside. Tells us if the ratio is right :)
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if it is slush start it up and get some temp in to the engine it wont take long to defrost it i have done this a good few times with no probs just make sure you dont run it too long then start to disconnect the hoses etc. i had to do this to my t4 the other night full of slush but 10 min later it was good as new and got the water circulating
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if you havent run the enigne it should be OK it takes a lot for the blocks to freeze, the radiator and pipes allways get it first and as the was slush thats a good sing.
the killer is when you start a frozen engine
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No need to get a garage to check it - We have this little dropper test with little balls inside. Tells us if the ratio is right :)
Yup, they're about £1 :grin:
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Sister did this to her old car, Popped all the bungs on the block, rad and pipes. She tried to start it and it stripped the cam belt. Wrote the car off!
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This sounds like one of those lessions you only need to learn once....... thing is I'm surprised that you didn't have any anti-freeze in it, especially given your location!
Note for the southern poofs like me, it also helps to cool your car in our tropical heat, so it's always worth putting at least a litre in your system as a precaution and benefit.
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thing is I'm surprised that you didn't have any anti-freeze in it, especially given your location!
Me too - I'm a moron! Biggest kick to the balls is that I'm in Manchester temporarily too! After refitting the engine earlier this year I flushed the rad a few times, which would have been pointlessly expensive if I kept putting coolant in it.
I always meant to get round to doing it and you know how it is, spring becomes summer, summer becomes autumn, autumn becomes winter...
I think the only reason it was slush is because I checked it mid-day when it was ~ 3 degs outside and it had midly thawed. I managed to have a reach around the back of the block and the two plugs I could reach seemed to be intact and in place. I'm trying to remember back to when I painted the block if I painted over the core plugs - I'm hoping I wasn't so dumb.
I was going to stick a heater in the bay- but I've only got an electric one and it keeps snowing/raining. We have a parafin heater just for engine blocks, had to use it on our old air cooled type 2 bus, I just need to get it back off a mate.
Does anyone know what kind of pressure the cooling system can take, ie. Can I block one end of the rad and plug the other with a garden hose to test for leaks, or would it be better to suspend a bucket and hose?
Edit: I found what the running pressure was, 18 psi (http://www.iol.ie/~kilkennyhockey/BentleyManual/GE02/ch3.2.1.html)
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Get it thawed out and run it up - it'll soon tell you where the holes are, if there are any.....
If it's any consolation I remember waaay back when I was a nipper the tractor driver didn't put any anti-freeze in the motor of the self-propelled forage harvester. Engine had to be taken out and get the block stitched up as it had cracked. That wasn't cheap.
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Did it to my mini but it was using a rad full of water per 10 miles driven. froze solid. thawed it and it fixed the coolant leak I'd been chasing for months!!
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m8 did the same to layland tractor and the block cracked. out came the angel grinder and stick welder :rolleyes:
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Good old farmers, love the way they think.
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I had another check today and I felt the core plugs again and one of them is raised, I could only feel 3 - is there 3 or 4 on the Golf? Two are recessed by about 3mm and the one nearest cyl. 4 is just above flush.
What should I do exactly, remove the core plug and refit a new one, or can I just try to tap it back into place (albeit extemely tight), or could I just leave it as long as its not leaking?
Also, when removing the metal cooling pipe I managed to damage a wire. I've resoldered the wire today, but the car won't start, there appears to be no fuel pressure. I was having trouble with this a few weeks ago, but after replacing some grounds for the fuel pumps - all was well. The car has been stationary for 4 weeks without being started, so this has probably had some knock on effect.
If my wire fix is not up to scratch - what is the implication of it being broken - could this cause my fuel pressure issue? Then one in question is the one which connects to the fuel regulator (?) on the block itself, featured just above the oil cooler in the photo below...
(http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1220/minicimg4343eo7.jpg)
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that is just a heater for the wur, so it wont effect fuel pressure. its fed from the output of the fuel pump relay though, so if you allowed it to earth anywhere then you would have blown the fuel pump fuse :)
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Fuse no 5 is it? I'll give it a check - but the IGN was off the whole time so I doubt its gone. Also, I remember you answering a post about my car a while back where the fuel pump wasn't priming and you said the relay is probably the wrong one - don't suppose you know what number relay it should be (I know its position 2).
What should I do about the core plug that is raised?
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aye fuse #5, the relay number I think should be '2' as in the number on the relay, not position which is also '2' confusingly :grin:
If it was me I'd put new core plugs in, but you might get away with tapping it back in if you can actually get to it. If you end up having to take the manifold off then while you have the access I'd put 3 new ones in!
You can bypass the relay using a chunky wire with a spade crimped on each end, stick it in the relay sockets where the 2 large pins from the relay go in.
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The whole area round the back of the block is pretty damn inaccessible! Would I have to remove the intake mani and exhaust mani to get to them? Sounds quicker to remove the engine!!
I tried reaching a hammer in the gap and although it fits, I didn't have enough room to swing it :( I raided the garage for a big G clamp but only found little ones.
If only I had my engine crane down here, I have a few things to sort out, the newly fitted stearing gaitors have torn, the pressure feed going into the rack is leaking and the gaskets on the differential flanges need replacing.
This tme of year is not friendly for car fixing without a sizeable garage - its feckin freezing!
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aye, what you need is some kind of 'inverse press' that braces against the zaust manifold, thewn you wind it open to press in the plugs. I've got to finish putting all my dash back in today, I'm not looking forward to it :grin:
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Unlucky you - I've never had to misfortune to ever have to remove/insert a full dash - but it doesn't look easy!
I'm still browsing forums and putting off actually going outside and getting cold because I don't want to have to remove the intake manifold to get to the freeze plugs!
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Tell me about it, I have a head gasket to finish doing!
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Pipe fitted :smiley: Radiator burst :angry:
ECP are giving me a new one at £50 all in ;)
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Noooooooooooooo :cry:
I have noticed when I put the blowers on hot, I'm getting a strange residue on the windscreen afterwards - looks like when fuel mixes with water. So I can almost guess that my matrix has gone.
Is there a definitive test to double check before I go about trying to sort it? I was thinking of blocking the inlet off, then fitting a tyre valve to the outlet and pressurising it and listening for a leak inside and keeping an eye on the gauge.
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it really isnt as hard as it sounds, take the dash out and pull the entire heaterbox off the bulkhead. If you can change a radiator you can change a heater matrix, it just takes longer!
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Oh I am capable, there's nothing on a car I can't replace - just lazy!
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get it done then :wink:
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Booooooo, I just wanted to confirm it was defo bust before swapping it out.
The MK3 one is recommended right? Is there an exact model/year to go for?
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just mk3, all same :)
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Bought, just need to fit it at some point this week. I hope the GSF ones are good quality.
I have a strange smokey/vapour coming out the vents - I take it that's a side effect of a dead heater matrix?
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yeah that and steamy windows when ya put blowers on are 2 main symptoms of a dead matrix!