Dodgy Coolant Problem - HELP!!!

Post Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:07 pm

Hi all

Drove down to Norwich last night and was watching the temp gauge a bit as it was hovering arounf 1/2 mark, which is a little higher than usual.

Anyway, stopped at Ferrybridge just to grab a burger and when I returned to the car, there was a lovely green river of coolant coming from the car.

After messing about on and off for a while the car drives fine and I just took it steady for the rest of the journey.

The wired problem is that the car does not appear to be losing any coolant when running and is not overheating. But as soon as you stop and switch off the engine, it dumps a load of coolant out of the breather pipe on the expansion tank. If I take the cap off the tank it will also briefly flow a load out there too. Can't see any other signs of leaks from other pipes etc.

If I squeeze the top hoses now it seems there is little or no coolant in them.

So it seems the system is pressurising. I've got no sign of oil contamination and no mayonaise coming up under the oil filler cap. So I don't think it is head gasket/ head.

Any ideas???? Please be quick if you can as I would like to get the damn thing fixed if poss.

Cheers
Lee

Post Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:10 pm

sounds similar to the early signs when my 325 head went

hope im wrong id say bleed the system asap and see how it is after
have you topped water up recently when the engine was warm with cold by any chance?? Daz

Post Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:14 pm

Had to put a bit of cold into it yesterday at Ferrybridge mate but I wasn't daft and was well aware of the perils of sticking cold water into hot engine.

It was flushed out when I did the cambelt a few weeks back and was actually running a good deal cooler after that.

Complete barsteward if my headgasket has gone!!

I know what you are saying though, it does seem to have the symptoms of head/gasket, maybe i'm just in denial :lol:

Post Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:17 pm

bleed it good and proper first mate and check pipes for even the slightest pinholes it could be less tragic you never know get lookin mate hope its not the head or gasket

took about 10 attempts when i last bled mine

good luck mate Daz

Post Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:20 pm

seems I have every spanner at my disposal apart from the 8mm for the bleed screw!!!

If I had got an air lock in it from last time, would that cause the symptoms I have now by any chance?

Post Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:23 pm

not 100%

but when mine started i was told to bleed it and did and it seemed ok for a few days but then it started more reguly and i kept bleeding but within a couple weeks head was fooked

so if it does solve it then it happens again i,d say head off and sort it before it really goes

also when all this was happenin there was no sign of mayo until it went then it filled up D

Post Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:24 pm

E30BeemerLad wrote:seems I have every spanner at my disposal apart from the 8mm for the bleed screw!!!

If I had got an air lock in it from last time, would that cause the symptoms I have now by any chance?

get an adjustable wrench and wind it down to fit the 8mm

if its dumping coolant from the breather pipe it suggests its fairly heavily pressureised...
so could be gasses getting in from the exhaust side of things.

no signs of mayo or that jazz?

Post Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:28 pm

or a nice wee pair of mini moleys

Post Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:32 pm

sorry to go OT, but daz-did you get my PM???

Post Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:36 pm

no mate whats up??

Post Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:48 pm

dazleeds wrote:no mate whats up??

nothing wrong mate

just sent one about your 730 conversion-will send it again!!

but its showing up that you have recieved it???

Post Fri Jul 22, 2005 2:41 pm

Hey folks

I may just be the spawniest mo fo alive. The old man has some bottles of stuff called Kalimex K-Seal, which is a bit like rad weld, but it guarantees to fix the problem for the life of the engine!

Just dropped the contents into the expansion tank, taken it for a quick spin and got back and it has stopped dumping out the overflow and the system does not appear to be pressuried any more.

www.kalimex.co.uk

Will keep an eye on it but the old fella said he used it on a Diesel Shogun which had a pretty bad problem with proper oil/water contaminaton and 7 months later the thing is still going strong.

Woohoo!!!!

Post Sun Jul 24, 2005 3:34 pm

OK, so we're a couple of days on from my last post on Friday when I poured this additive into my cooling system which was spewing coolant out only when I switched the car off when warm.

Cooling system was pressurised due to suspected head gasket or head fault.

Since then I've thrashed the car around Norfolk and driven 200 miles back to York today. It has behaved itself totally and is running at normal temp and no coolant loss.

Only time will tell but I must stress the stuff I added is guaranteed for the life of the engine, not like radweld or other get you home measures.

Link to the stuff below. At the moment I can't recommend it highly enough and certainly has saved me Ãƒ”šÃ‚£120 on a headgasket set + timing belt etc etc

HAPPY DAYS

http://www.kalimex.co.uk/section.html?s ... 4.&pgid=17