OK so I had my car back since Saturday - it's been running OK

 

This evening I took the missus to he Zumba class about 2 miles away. Just before I got there I heard this noice which I had not heard before like a fan blowing (thought my heater fans were on at first but they were not as it sounded like a noisy heater fan)

 

Anyway I dropped her the wife off and ran the two miles or so back home - car running OK but after a mile started making a bit of an odd noise through the exhausts when coasting to junctions etc which I find very difficult to describe.

 

Got to roundabout half a mile away and as I pulled off thought I saw smoke at side of and behind the car

 

All guages looked OK, oil, boost, temp sitting at about 50% so ran the last half mile.

 

Got home and soon as I stopped lots of steam coming up from under the bonnet towards rear offside

 

Popped the bonnet and the steam was all hissing and coming very near the back off the engine - somewhere under the rear engine bay cover that I have fitted so it's not possble to see where exactly

 

Tried to video this but by the time I got my camera it was still hissing a little bit but the steam had almost all stopped and soon the hissing stopped too

 

There is some water underneath the car on the road but not great puddles of it

 

Oh I turned the ignition back on (not started her of course) so I could wind up the windows and there is this orange light on the dash looks like it says 'check engine' and somethings going bleep.... bleep... bleep repeating maybe every second or a bit quicker than that

 

If it ain't one thing with this car its another!!! grrrr

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Rich

hissing coolant at the back of the engine could be the heater matrix pipes. check coolant level, if its contaminated. check your oil filler cap for mayo, and take the engine bay skin of as guessing where the hissing is coming from isnt as good as knowing.

 

If you still have it check your coolant overflow tank which is behind the nearside indicator in the bumper. if you have any coolant in there it could point to over pressure in the system.

 

Hope its simple buddy!

 

The smoke may have just been the steam from your engine, when its cold maybe start it again if there is no obvious leaks...or even better. call Lee as he knows them very well!

Edited May 6, 201411 yr by Hollings

I guess the whirring noise was some additonal fans somewhere blowing cool air on the engine block?

 

I never heard them on the Zed before but my Renault 25 V6 Turbo had three each side and used to do that sometimes if I was stuck in traffic in very hot weather.

 

What's bugging me is why the temp guage did not go up (well not much at least) and indicate I had a problem???

the AC fan is activated as a last stand kinda thing if the viscous coesnt cool enough. Get a decent aftermarket gauge. the stock gauge is pretty vague in telling you whats actually happening.

You're not a million miles from Zedworld ... give Jeff a call

You're not a million miles from Zedworld ... give Jeff a call

 

Yes, give Jeff a call

I guess the whirring noise was some additonal fans somewhere blowing cool air on the engine block?

 

I never heard them on the Zed before but my Renault 25 V6 Turbo had three each side and used to do that sometimes if I was stuck in traffic in very hot weather.

 

What's bugging me is why the temp guage did not go up (well not much at least) and indicate I had a problem???

 

iff the system suffered a fast coolant loss then theres nothing for the temp sensor to pick-up a reading from Rich...hope you have,nt cooked it:no:

OK a little update

 

I went back to the car - turned ignotion on

 

The bleep bleep noise is because I left it in reverse :stupid:

 

The 'check engine' indicator was on on the dash

 

I did start it up - sounded OK, only ran it for 5 secs

 

Not sure if I should remove the radiator cap yet = may still be quite warm

 

There is a trail where water from under the car has run in the gutter

 

Will get garage across the road to presurise the coolant system tomorrow - see where leak is

Fingers crossed is only a heater matrix hose or something like that ..... bugger to fix but not serious if that you can cut the pipe put a jubilee clip on each side of the cut and put a piece of metal pie inside the rubber hose and hold it with the jubilee clips, that would get you mobile

 

Otherwise have you done Planum bypass ? That could also be the problem

 

If it dumped so much water as leave a visible trail even swiched of it does sound more like a hose than anything else

Lee Dent gave me a call this evening

 

My car has all the coolant bypasses it can have so basically there is:

 

the hoses to and from the radiator

 

to and from the turbos

 

to and from the heater matrix

 

and that's about it

 

 

He says the latter sounds the most likely problem - guess I will find out tomorrow and I really hope it didn't do any more serious damage being how my luck with Zeds has run of late!

 

Rich

Was there much coolant left in the rad?

dont worry about it matey! im sure the riddle will be solved and the weak point will be remedied

Mine did this, sprayed coolant all over the passenger rear of the block looked scarey, but some new turbo coolant line and it was sorted. I've since replaced every last water and vac hose on the whole engine.

OK problem solved

 

As far as I can say there was no coolant left in the block or rad this morning - it took over a gallon of water to fill - prob about 10 pints

 

Every time I filled the radiator to the top it would bubble then the water level drop again

 

No contamination in the oil

 

Took the car over the road to the garage and when I looked a couple minutes later there was a pool of water under the car

 

Anyway they fixedthe problem - there was a split pipe where it goeds into the heater matrix (actually the other one may have had a small leak too)

 

They vut an inch or so off both pipes and reconnected as there was still plenty of spare

 

Car is running OK now, was allowed to warm up and no leaks as of yet

 

Engine sounds same as before to me, so hopefully I escaped any severe damage

 

Lee Dent gonna replace the old pipes with some new good quality ones next time he has the car

 

Rich

 

Rich

Get some brand new silicone ones through SFS much easier to fit. Just make sure the block is bled of air before you drive it, more than off the Ramps etc.

Well done Rich good to here you got it sorted mate:) these cars are very testing thought of bailing out of mine loads of times,but perseverance takes hold,got Steve at silverline to replace all my pipes because they where all perished,these pipes get really hot under the hood maybe you should think of changing all these mate just to be safe.

Well done Rich good to here you got it sorted mate:) these cars are very testing thought of bailing out of mine loads of times,but perseverance takes hold,got Steve at silverline to replace all my pipes because they where all perished,these pipes get really hot under the hood maybe you should think of changing all these mate just to be safe.

 

Exactly that and exactly why when I had my engine out I replaced every last hose, even the damn turbo drain ones.

Exactly that and exactly why when I had my engine out I replaced every last hose, even the damn turbo drain ones.

 

I did too mate. Even if the pipes 'looked' OK, chances are that disturbing them when doing an engine pull wouldn't have helped their condition much. Would be gutting to get the engine back in only to find you've now got a leak from a pipe you could have changed...

Yeah TBH guys I can't really speak for him but Lee seemed very concerned over this whole issue and asked me for some pics of the damage - don't know if he thought pulling the engine may have had any influence on all this or not unless he decides to post here

 

Was gonna get the local garage to bypass the pipes so Lee could sort it but in the end they fixed it and didn't cost anymore than a trip over to Shrewsbury and back plus whatever labour would have been involved there

 

So all ended good this time...

 

However I will take the advice and get all the remaining hoses (most have been deleted now) replaced with silicone ones and should not have to worry about this again. Of course they will have to be Red ones :tongue_smilie:

 

Rich