My car has started to idle funny again :(

[Overseer]

yesterday morning i did my first coolant check.. and it did need a bit of topping up.. i'd guess about 1/2 a litre.. but apart from being run at idle where it was sorted out at the garage i had run it up the motorway about 10 miles and back on A-Roads..

checked again this morning as i'd only done my usual work commute yesterday and the level was pretty good and settled this morning a few lil bubbles.. hopefully just signs of any air that was trapped from it being draiend/refilled twice and the leak introducing air sorting itself out..
today it was only ever so slighty under the maximum marker today..? and no signs of contamination.. i forgot to check the oil for signs of water contamination. will probably remember that tomorrow.

[Overseer]

right.. off now to check level again, and look at oil

drove around a bit more than usual last night but only short journeys about town

results...

coolant = level was down a teeny bit
oil = fine


might be goin up to bristol n back today (120 odd mile round trip..) so that might show something up

[Overseer]

did end up going to bristol and back (plus a detour to check out a dry snowboarding place on the way.. )

no problems whatsoever..

check the levels and oil for contamination sunday morn before went to the gym and it was down a little bit.. with the oil being fine... level was down a bit like it had been a day or so before.. the longer journey hadnt made a big dent or difference... which is good...

drove around town quite a lot yesterday.. more than my usual commute and when i checked it this morning the level was really good.. and had no bubbles.

all in all over the 4 days sicne i've had the car back i've probably put under 2 pints back in the car.

i think most of this has been down to how diffiicult/tricky it is to properly refill the coolant system.

[Overseer]

checked coolant again this morning.. level had barely changed... i topped it up to the max marker again.. literally a few caps worth of water..

feeling more confident about it now..

car is also still running and idling better than i can ever remember.. so am pretty happy about it right now!

[kr1s77]

how much was the ISV and where did you get it from??

[Overseer]

25 quid from a scrappy?

i'm pretty sure the huuuuge vacuum leak was more of a factor in the dodgy idle..
but i'm amazed it wasn't noticed by me before.. (or when it was looked at by performance driven back last year)
perhaps it was less obvious then...

to be sure i'd have to swap the ISVs back over again..

[Overseer]

 
coolant level was still going down here and there... only but small amounts..


so last friday i got some radweld in halfords and put that in..

the level seemed good a day later.. and today i checked it and it was even higher? LOL!

plus today the expansion tank made a vacuumy 'pop' while i removed its lid.. whereas before it hadnt.
so i assume its maintaining pressure properly now.

i'll again check in the morning but i'm confident the little bottle of radweld has sorted it (the small size is about 3 quid from halfrauds..)


along with this and my exhaust falling off its been an expensive month!