Hi all,

 

Took my car for a drive this morning, everything was fine until the temp gauge went all the way to the top. So I stopped and waited for the car to cool down. Took off the rad cap, what looked strange:

 

 

And in the top of the rad it looked like this:

 

 

What the hell is this?

 

Help, Alastair. :cry:

I forgot to say that i think the car is leaking anti freeze, as well.

Chocolate mousse doesn't do much for the cooling of a Z engine.

 

I'm afraid that looks like oil, so I would suggest you've blown the head gasket:( :cry:

 

Either that or a previous owner had shares in Radweld:(

I have checked under the oil cap and the oil dip stick there is only clean oil on both. So would it still be the head gasket?

It could be the head gasket allowing oil to be pushed into the water but it doesn't look like it on that photo.

 

First thing you need to do is get it filled up with water, bled properly with no airlocks and then find out where the leak is. Then get that sorted, flush the system through, (to get all the oxtail soup out! ;)), fill up with anti-freeze & water and see how it goes.

That's not oil, it's rust.

 

I had the same problem.

 

You have a fair amount of rust build up inside the rad (may be caused by rad weld or some other kak product). This eventually causes blockages, which in turn cause the car to over heat.

 

I would suggest flushing the Rad completely, taking it out for a spin and then flushing again.

 

This should solve most of your problems, you still need to find out where it's leaking from, I'm guessing it's the overflow (due to the blockages).

 

Personally I did it the easy way and got a new rad :rofl: LOL ;)

Thanks everyone for your help. It's very much appreciated :)

Would be wise to get new rad cap too!

remember - mosts manufaturers recommend a coolant change every 3 years for this very reason.

 

Antifreeze also contains corrosion inhibitor, flush it & renew with a good quality antifreeze

Having had a blown head gasket, I'd say the inside of my rad looked like it'd been filled with McD's choccy milkshake (quite light brown). There was a thick layer of it on the rad cap and a whole load in the bottom of the overflow. The oil in the sump looked fine (oil was blowing into the water rather than the other way around). The overheating thing doesn't sound good - mine kept doing this at random times while the gasket was blown. It'd run fine all day then suddenly happen. When I bought it, the guy said it'd had a new pair of head gaskets which is why the rad was so full of cr*p. After SE pulled it apart, they confirmed he wasn't actually lying, but whoever'd done the job had put the heads back on with the wrong bolts in the wrong holes (9 short, 1 long? Or is it the other way round). I reckon, if you've got a blockage, you wanna get that sorted sooner rather than later, cos if you haven't already, you could end up with a blown gasket! It's a fixed price repair at SE btw, if you need it done.

So there I was giving advice to someone else whose car is spewing out water. Never happens to mine (except since the water pump failed 30k miles ago) so I'm feeling smug.

 

This evening I drive away from the work car park thinking, "Hmmm, someones car has leaked there, maybe it was rain, hang on, it hasn't rained today". Get home and notice that the water temp is 75 deg C, rather than the normal 71C. Leave the car in the garage and go in for dinner. Go back to check an hour later and there is a puddle in the garage - B0ll0x ! 1.5 litres of water and the level is back to normal, leave it ticking over for a bit and nothing drips. 10 mile drive up to the shops and back - still nothing dripping, but there is just a little dampness on one of the belts. So I'm now fairly sure that it's either one of the short pipes above the water pump, or the pump itself ..... arse'oles!

 

So anyway, I'm supposed to be getting it MOT'd tomorrow, am off for 3 days on a course next week, followed immediately by a 200 mile drive to Cheshire - wtf am I gonna do now .... :(

 

F-all chance of getting parts in time and f-all chance of getting the time to fit them anyway - and that's assuming I can verify for certain the cause of the leak.

Originally posted by AndyP

So there I was giving advice to someone else whose car is spewing out water. Never happens to mine (except since the water pump failed 30k miles ago) so I'm feeling smug.

 

This evening I drive away from the work car park thinking, "Hmmm, someones car has leaked there, maybe it was rain, hang on, it hasn't rained today". Get home and notice that the water temp is 75 deg C, rather than the normal 71C. Leave the car in the garage and go in for dinner. Go back to check an hour later and there is a puddle in the garage - B0ll0x ! 1.5 litres of water and the level is back to normal, leave it ticking over for a bit and nothing drips. 10 mile drive up to the shops and back - still nothing dripping, but there is just a little dampness on one of the belts. So I'm now fairly sure that it's either one of the short pipes above the water pump, or the pump itself ..... arse'oles!

 

So anyway, I'm supposed to be getting it MOT'd tomorrow, am off for 3 days on a course next week, followed immediately by a 200 mile drive to Cheshire - wtf am I gonna do now .... :(

 

F-all chance of getting parts in time and f-all chance of getting the time to fit them anyway - and that's assuming I can verify for certain the cause of the leak.

 

FFS:(

 

Andy you can borrow my Mondeo if you like;)

Originally posted by MAC 1

FFS:(

 

Andy you can borrow my Mondeo if you like;)

 

 

Thanks mate, if you can just post it down in time for Monday morning - LOL

Originally posted by AndyP

Thanks mate, if you can just post it down in time for Monday morning - LOL

 

LOL no serious,get the train up and you can have it for a week or so;)

Originally posted by MAC 1

LOL no serious,get the train up and you can have it for a week or so;)

 

Thanks mate, I'm working on a contingency plan involving a Renault, but I'll let you know pronto if it falls though ....

Originally posted by AndyP

Thanks mate, I'm working on a contingency plan involving a Renault, but I'll let you know pronto if it falls though ....

 

No probs;)

Just a update, to say that i flushed my rad about three times got all that crap out. Brought a new rad cap, filled it back up. Went for a long drive 130 miles, temp gague stayed at half way. The car never over heated. Fingers crossed it say like that :)

 

Alastair.

 

Very interesting this thread, so much so I went out to take the same pic of my rad. I have been convienced my head gasket had gone (oil in water - no signs of water in oil) and had a total flush but the crap (which certainly does seem to be oil) came back :(

 

Anyways maybe it is rust as Stuart says! What do you guys think from the photo? How can I confirm 100% what the problem is?

 

If it is the gasket 51X do you know what SEs fixed price is? Do they do it with the engine in or out?

 

Cheers

Martin

Mine had the same rusty colour when I looked after it had dumped it's coolant. The garage phoned today to say that the rad had split so they have had to fit a new one. No apparant damage to the gasket or pump though - which is good.

Originally posted by martinfa

do you know what SEs fixed price is? Do they do it with the engine in or out?

I can't honestly remember how much - was a long time ago when I had mine done. And had a pair of turbos at the same time. I can find out Tuesday tho if noone else knows. It's gonna be an engine out thing... but then, isn't everything? Change of air-filter?.. better take the engine out! :D If they need it, they'll skim the heads at the same time, which is part of the fixed price IIRC.

 

Looking at your pic, try getting your finger into the rad and under the edge (when it's cold, obviously!). If you get a layer of greasy crud - feels kinda creamy and probably tastes more oily than rusty - it could be a head gasket. Mine got worse after I rad-flushed it. It wasn't using up oil either.

 

Hoping it's just rust in the water. I'd take a pic of mine, but noone wants to see what perfectly clean coolant looks like! I could probably drink it - it's that good. Bit of anti-freeze never did anyone any harm ;)

I'm getting increasingly worried about mine - beginning to think the very early stages of head gasket failure !

Andy, get a compression test done m8! Although, a blown headgasket would be VERY unlikely to leave puddles ;)

It's not so much the puddles, it's the goop in the radiator !