Just pulled up at some lights, steam started gushing out from under the bonnet, temp gauge all the way to the top. Pulled her over and took a look under the bonnet, lots of greenish coolant everywhere. Clearly something has gone wrong XD

 

Anyway, took a few snaps of the engine bay, can you guys take a look and tell me what you think? (sorry the pics are blurry)

 

 

 

 

The last one makes me think that a belt is missing, I can't find a good picture of that area though.

 

Cheers

John

Aircon belt is missing

The belt thats missing is for you air con.You need to let it cool down completly then refill and look for leaks.

Ah, I was told the aircon was deleted, guess thats why then.

 

Ill refill it in the morning. At the moment the car is parked at the top of my town, so i'll need to move it. Would I be able to drive it about half a mile, or is it a tow job?

 

Cheers

Aircon belt is missing

 

The belt thats missing is for you air con.You need to let it cool down completly then refill and look for leaks.

 

Ah, I was told the aircon was deleted, guess thats why then.

 

Ill refill it in the morning. At the moment the car is parked at the top of my town, so i'll need to move it. Would I be able to drive it about half a mile, or is it a tow job?

 

Cheers

 

the aircon belt will not make your car over heat unless there is A/C refrigerant in the A/C pipes when its turned on and the AC compressor hasn't been unplugged. (look for a white connector down the passenger side of the intake pipe, should be able to see if the aircon pump still has it plugged in) (see below for a better explanation as i missed a few things yesterday when originally replying)

 

Filler her up, leave the heater on, but on highest temp settings and on full, this will help reduce heat with in the system if you need to drive it home, but take it easy and keep an eye on the gauge, but i think she will just over heat again.

 

Could be a burst hose, or a split hose making it lose water, hole in the rad, leak on the heater matrix or associated pipe work, faulty thermostat.

Edited April 14, 201312 yr by vodkashots
Changed LIGHT to GAUGE and added a pointer.

As far as I am aware the whole AC system is hacked out, so nothing related to that I guess. Looking at the pictures I took on my phone, all the fluid is splattered around the right of the radiator (when looking at the car from the front). What is the hose that is attached to the top of the radiator fill cap?

 

Cheers everyone

knackered viscous fan letting it overheat?

As far as I am aware the whole AC system is hacked out, so nothing related to that I guess. Looking at the pictures I took on my phone, all the fluid is splattered around the right of the radiator (when looking at the car from the front). What is the hose that is attached to the top of the radiator fill cap?

 

Cheers everyone

 

its the over flow, so expansion in the rad under normal conditions can filter into the overflow tank.

 

Get it trailered home, fill her up in the morning and under supervision run her on idle with the rad cap off and see if she over heats, if she does start, then shut her off, put the cap back on, wait for the system to cool down and try again, this time look out for leaks in the system, this is better done if you have access to the ECU temp rather than relying on the dash gauge as you get a better reading of the temp and can shut the car off before any further damage is caused, if the bottom rad hose collapses, then it could be either a blockage or something is wrong with the thermostat stopping it from opening fully and that's whats caused you to over heat.

 

Also get a block tester from ebay, you might want to check to see if your HG has gone or starting to go.

Edited April 13, 201312 yr by vodkashots

Okay, will do. Thanks for all the help vodkashots!

Okay, will do. Thanks for all the help vodkashots!

 

No problem, i had loads of issues with a over heating zed, took me ages and a few goes to get the system under control. might want to have a rummage through some of my old posts.

 

finally got my over heating sorted out and then took a rear impact collision that ended up snapping the top rad pipe and blowing the HG lol

looks like the overflow/rad ap is covered my guess is the rad caps dead. ut you've gotta fill it up and look for steam and or a leak then shut it down and fix it. where is the bay was team coming from roughly front or rear?

Whilst my car is a N/A, I think the Rad cap is off a TT as its pressure rated to 1.2 (I think). Doubt it makes a difference, but my thoughts at the time where that is was leaking from either the cap, the overflow or maybe the seams at the top of the radiator itself.

 

As far as I could tell the steam was coming from the front right of the engine bay, near the main fuse box area. Those two big pipes at the front of the engine block were a little splattered but mostly dry.

 

I'll take a good look this evening after work and test it, and report back.

 

Cheers

Just to ensure the OP to this and other threads gets the best advise wonder if you can answer these.

 

the aircon belt will not make your car over heat unless there is A/C refrigerant in the A/C pipes when its turned on and the AC compressor hasn't been unplugged. (look for a white connector down the passenger side of the intake pipe, should be able to see if the aircon pump still has it plugged in)

 

Just wondered why you think the ac would make the engine overheat

 

Filler her up, leave the heater on, but on highest temp settings and on full, this will help reduce heat with in the system if you need to drive it home, but take it easy and keep an eye on the light, but i think she will just over heat again.

 

What light to keep an eye on?

 

Could be a burst hose, or a split hose making it lose water, hole in the rad, leak on the heater matrix or associated pipe work, faulty thermostat.

Edited April 14, 201312 yr by JeffTT

Whilst my car is a N/A, I think the Rad cap is off a TT as its pressure rated to 1.2 (I think). Doubt it makes a difference, but my thoughts at the time where that is was leaking from either the cap, the overflow or maybe the seams at the top of the radiator itself.

 

As far as I could tell the steam was coming from the front right of the engine bay, near the main fuse box area. Those two big pipes at the front of the engine block were a little splattered but mostly dry.

 

I'll take a good look this evening after work and test it, and report back.

 

Cheers

 

The expansion tank is down on the lower right, my money is on a cracked rad or a dodgy rad cap, take it off and check for forgin bodies, a bit of dirt could let the seal by, for the few quid a rad cap will cost you its worth doing. hopefully its something simple like a split etc, but you will just have to take it one step at a time.

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if the rad or one of the pipes to it is shot, the roads around here are so bad and my suspension so stiff it must get some real jolts.

Just to ensure the op to this and other threads gets the best advise wonder if you can answere these.

 

If there is a fault with the AC system, it might of contributed to the over heating of the car (see link below on overheating), especially if the AC fan on the front of the AC rad fails to come on, yes i could of given the advice to pull the ECU temp sensor off the front water pipe to check to see if the Aux fan is working, but it was a long day for me and i was trying to point someone in the direction of some help, what i forgot after i started typing is that the belt wasn't present, so the pump wouldn't work to move refrigerant around the system and bring the temp up slightly, thus the need for a AUX fan on the AC rad that kicks in when the AC is turned on to cool the AC rad. this can add to the heat coming onto the front of the OEM radiator and heating it up if there is a issue with other areas of the cooling system, although im sure you are fully aware of that and do not need me to tell you how the system works

 

Though im intrigued as to why you singled me out and brought that up when i was answering about the missing AC belt that others before me had pointed out.

 

As for the light, it was a simple mistake, it was supposed to say gauge, im sure you could of worked that one out though, but thank you for bringing it too my attention, i can now edit my post.

 

Anyway Tornoutlaw this might help you, as it once helped me when i had overheating issues and got told that a thermostat cant fail closed (which as it turned out, it fail to open and caused my over heating and collapsed the lower rad pipe and ended up dumping coolant over my mates brand new drive)

 

http://z32.wikispaces.com/Cooling+System

Edited April 14, 201312 yr by vodkashots

 

Though im intrigued as to why you singled me out and brought that up when i was answering about the missing AC belt that others before me had pointed out.

 

 

Nothing sinister, trouble with viewing via phone and panning left and right I guess sometime miss the gist of things.

 

Jeff TT

Nothing sinister, trouble with viewing via phone and panning left and right I guess sometime miss the gist of things.

 

Jeff TT

 

well it could of been a red herring as i never had a issue with over heating due to the belt being missing on the clutch for the AC pump, but also know that it could contribute to overheating if there was a issue with other areas of the system.

 

With my over heating problems, i think i went through everything lol, had a blocked rad, failed thermostat, failing 20 year old coolant pipes that kept splitting all over the engine, trapped air pocket and a blocked heater matrix, and then once id sorted all that lot out and actually got the car to stop over heating, that annoying accident that made the top plastic rad pipe (part on the rad that the top radiator hose connects too) snap and finally kill my HG.

It's a good thing really that Jeff is looking over this advice to ensure its up to scratch.

It's a good thing really that Jeff is looking over this advice to ensure its up to scratch.

 

lol, spit it out joel.

I really appreciate all the advice everyone, some really good stuff.

 

Went back to the car with a few bottles of water, topped up the radiator. It drank it all so I don't really know how much was missing. Was able to get the car home with no issues, was only 1/4 of a mile so the car didn't even get to temperature on the way back. I left it running on the drive for a bit and it got up to operating temperature (just below half way on the gauge) and seems okay, no steam or anything. It's pissing it down at the moment so it's going to be a job for my day off to clean it all up in there and try and locate the source of the leak.

 

Bit worried about potentially having a blown head gasket, I've checked the oil on both sides and it looks really clean, no white residue that I've been told to look for. Also no smoke from the exhaust when it's at temperature. Fingers crossed its okay.

 

Cheers everyone

Hi everyone

 

Taken a look this evening. The coolant is leaking from the very top of the radiator housing. Someone has done a bit of a bodge fixing it in the past with some putty stuff and looks like its finally give up, so new radiator time I think. As my car is a JDM automatic I'm thinking that the radiator is also used for cooling the gearbox oil, so guess I'm going to have to get a radiator and a separate oil cooler too, correct me if I'm wrong. I've included some pics for everyone's perusal!

 

 

 

Cheers all!

wehay my guess wins :)

Hi everyone

 

Taken a look this evening. The coolant is leaking from the very top of the radiator housing. Someone has done a bit of a bodge fixing it in the past with some putty stuff and looks like its finally give up, so new radiator time I think. As my car is a JDM automatic I'm thinking that the radiator is also used for cooling the gearbox oil, so guess I'm going to have to get a radiator and a separate oil cooler too, correct me if I'm wrong. I've included some pics for everyone's perusal!

 

Cheers all!

 

I'd suggest upgrading to the UK spec radiator/oil and auto 'box oil cooler set-up mate! The auto-box gets the old J-spec engine oil cooler (bigger and better at cooling the tranny fuid) and the engine oil gets a bigger better cooler too.

 

Richard:thumbup1:

Being an import you should have the integrated oil cooler in you radiator. If you look further down under the top right coolant pipe of the radiator (from the front of the car) you should see two smaller pipes, one above the other about halfway down. If so you need a new radiator and seperats oil cooler or a good used import spec radiator.

Think I'm going to go down the route of replacing the radiator and adding a separate oil cooler for the auto box. Looks like it should be pretty straight forward to do, but if anyone has any tips for this job I'd welcome them. Main thing I'm thinking about is if I can clamp or tie off the auto oil pipes so I don't have oil going everywhere when I take the radiator out.

 

Going to use this opportunity to replace the gearbox oil too I think. I saw somewhere that it is filled using the drivers side dip-stick, is this right?

 

If anyone has any good radiator brands (coolant or the oil one) I'd appreciate some info. Thanks again everyone for all your help, really good information from everyone!

 

John