help needed

[Stevet1986]

this morning me and bigred fitted a new thermostat and a new heater matrix, took a while for the heaters to produce hot air, would not produce hot air while idle, was when driving that the heat started. the car is using a fair bit of water and there is like a brown colouring to the water at the top of the water bottle and around the neck of the cap, there is also i small amound of what looks like mayonaise in the bottom of the bottle apart from these issues atm the car drives well and starts 1st no unusual coloured smoke from exhaust, any help would be great cheers

[si1988]

hmmmm, id put an air line in the over spill hose on the expansion tank and see if there are any leaks. simple and effective.

[kam-325i]

hmmmm, id put an air line in the over spill hose on the expansion tank and see if there are any leaks. simple and effective.

ignore this for the moment..........air is the last thing you want to be putiing into the cooling system.

You say you are losing a fair bit of water......

First question....What engine ?

[Stevet1986]

its not as much losing as there's no puddles under the car, its 1989 320se

[kam-325i]

you can still loose water and not see a drop under the car !!!

second question........Why did you change the thermostat and heater matrix ?

[Stevet1986]

thermostat was dead and inside the thermo housing the same brown coloured water, and the heater matrix as the car was picking when it wanted me to have hot air, most of the time it was cold air only blowing out

[kam-325i]

sounds like the engine has been loosing water over a long time then...

cold air out of the heater with a warm engine is a classic sign of water loss OR water pump failure...


there is a train of thought that when the water pump fails, along with the lack of flow of coolant at idle, can cause localised overheating in the head, and cause cracks in the head. this would expalin where the water is going...

I would look at changing the water pump....