coolant problem...

[dabill]

right chaps, have a problem an im not 100% what to do

driving the car yesterday, and i notice the water temp slowly start rising, and then the water leve indicator started flashing, then worst happend and loads of steam poured out of my bonnet, but from the expansion tank area.

so i pulled over an popped the bonnet.

looks like the water is escaping from the expension tank. so i dropped the water out and refilled, ran the car upto temp with the expension tank cap off and topped up when nessesary. but as soon as it got to temp it just boiled over, and the fan didnt even have chance to kick in... ive just realise that i didnt have the heaters on so could that have caused it to boil over, and it simply bea  case of the seal in the expansion tank cap is perished?

cheers

dabill

[Village Idiots]

Could be lots of things....at the worst cylinder head gasket. Is there evidence of water in the oil, check under the oil filler cap for 'mayo'. A garage will check for oil in water.

[dabill]

well just checked the oil and there aint no mayo, plus the water i dropped out was spotless pretty much.

just tried re-filling the coolant and runnin her upto temp...same thing again..

the top rad hose gets nice and toastie, and the rad gets toastie, but the bottom rad hose stays freezin cold. then as it gets hotter the water just rises in teh expansion tank and then eventually i guess if i left it it would just over flow, but i dont fancy doin that lol.. and the rad fan doesnt kick in either... humm

any more ideas?

[Horney]

thermostat stuck shut?

nick

[JimR]

thermostat stuck shut?

nick

Sounds like this ^^

[1982.rpd]

It will be the thermostat stuck shut.  You need the cap on to pressurise the system, with it off and the car running it will boil over

[GTIMKiiJODE]

Mine did this in the middle of glasgow.

If you haven't sorted this yet unscrew the cap off the expansion tank. Look at the underneath off the cap and there is a rubber o ring/seal that makes the seal when you tighten the cap up.

If this is not located properly within the cap you lose water when engine heats up. Check it now!!!

[gibby]

.....and when you've sorted the thermostat and if the expansion tank cap is black, go and buy a blue one as the black ones were known to have issues with the seal.

[dabill]

first thing i did was check the seal lol, it is a black cap, but the seal seems to be fine, i'll maybe replace this anyway...

gonna pick up a thermostat today and get it stuck in later on, will elt you know if it solves the problem...

[rubjonny]

it will boil over with the cap off before the fan kicks in anyway, this is normal.  what you do is run it from cold, squeze all the rad hoses rev the engine now & again to 2k then as soon as you see the level rising ort it start to boil switch the engine off and refit the cap.