right.....

on the way back from JAE the temp guage went from just under halfway straight up to the top in a couple of seconds........then it dropped back down........then few seconds later it went back up again.

 

ive heard the temp guages can be rubbish so i presumed that this was the prob, a dodgy guage.

 

when i got back home i topped up the water just to be on the safe side, and all seemed fine. a couple of days later i parked the car facing downhill and when i came out to the car after an hour or so there was a puddle of water just under the expansion bottle. i presumed that i had just overfilled it plus the fact it was a boiling day, that this is why it had "dumped" a bit of its load.

 

anyway, today driving from scarborough to york the guage started playing up again. so when i stopped i had a fiddle with the temp wires to check they were ok, and thought i would check the water.

 

when i did check the water i couldnt find any!!! :shock: i filled the rad up with about 4 pints of water and coolant (thats when it started to reach neck of rad).

 

now it doesnt seem to be dropping any water apart from the one time mentioned, there isnt any sign of it in the engine (foam/cream in top of oil cap), no pipes are pressurising..........i dont know where its going!!! :confused:

 

just wondered if anyone had any ideas/advice for us?

 

thanks in advance!!

There is deffinataly a leak some where. The temp gauge usually shoots to the top of the gauge when there is no water reaching the sensor, caused by not enough water in the system.

 

I am currently in the middle of taking my engine apart (again) and although I suspected there was a water/oil leak I could see no sign in the water or on the oil filler cap.

However when I took the cam covers off there was quite a lot of cream on the cam cover, showing there is a leak.

 

You are better off doing a compression test to see if there is anything obvious, but its hard to diagnose a head gasket problem from that alone, but it could give you a clue.

 

You could do an oil change and use some flushing fluid to get it all out. You may see evidence of creaming there.

the engines only done 6k miles, so im hoping there aint any head gasket probs. :(

the engines only done 6k miles, so im hoping there aint any head gasket probs. :(

 

 

My engine has only done 6000 miles and I have a blown ring and head gasket problem.

i have had two burst pipes that resulted in a 'dump' of water then nothing for ages and then another 'dump' when i got round to fixing it, i discovered that the braid in the rubber hose had collapsed and the hose was balooning under pressure. there was a tiny pin hole in the rubber, and when the pressure got high it sprayed out and then the hole closed over again.

its hard to tell if this is whats happening with you but it may be a head gasket. it may be overpressurising the coolant into the expansion bottle and running out over the overflow. by this time it will have emptied all the coolant out the engine and left a puddle on your drive...

worth checking.

 

or it might just be that the neck of the radiator has worn, and the cap pops off slightly and allows the coolant to overflow into the expansion tank, or down the side onto the floor.

 

Fraser

i had a similar problem and it turned out to be the heater matrix hoses at the back of the engine. One had a very tiny hole which you couldnt see or hear but was letting air into the system causing air locks..hence the water dumping.

I have exactly the same problem at the moment, take the car to a local garage with a block tester, but before you take it there, thrash the pants of it.

 

I can still drive the car fine, its really weird but all the water I am using is being dumped out the side exit of the expansion bottle. It only ever goes under sustained levels of high boost so generally cruising with a little thrash here and there is fine.

 

In october she's coming off the road for the head gaskets to be done....