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ok so just got back from football.. drive back i noticed the temp gauge go up a bit further than usual.. but not alarming .. or so i thought.. anyway get home and there is a hissing and steam bellowing from the rad! .. its far to dark for me to do anything but .. any suggestions? i also have no heat coming through the vents in the car.. always been pretty naf. but now nothing just cold air! 2 related? any help/suggestions are appreciated!

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  • Author
Sounds like an air lock or the system has killed a pipe. have u done any work on it recently?

 

nope :-/ ... i thought it may be to do with the cold weather? could have perished an old pipe maybe?

Could have? i had been losing water from zed for weeks, couldnt locate for ages, until one day i noticed one of the water hoses had a pin hole in, not enough to show when cold, but when engine was hot it only came out as steam.

Worth topping system up and make sure no air , when its up to temp, start searching, once you can find out where steam is from, then should be ok to fix.

I would nt drive it too hard for the mo.

Maybe -

The top hose neck broke, remove the hose from rad and have a look, they go brittle and weak

Thermostate stuck shut ?

Water pump had it ?

Edited by wow300

been here! check heater matrix pipes, doing me mates cause his boiled up!:(

 

dan.:)

I had a similar problem after a rebuild, had an air lock... Try either undo-ing the drain plug on the bottom corner of the radiator to drain the system (careful tho, it's plastic, so breaks easy) or undo a hose from the bottom of the radiator. Then, with the engine running, and the heater set on hottest and full fan, pour water into the radiator, it might over flow, but get as much as you can in it, as it has an expansion tank, be patient, it takes a while, it also helps to have someone inside the car to check if the heater is giving out hot air, a little rev of the engine helps too, gets the water pump pumping....

 

If not, then probably something shitty, like a busted pipe, more than likely somewhere you can't reach :-) :-) :-)

i had this mate last month,

 

try the easy/free option of an air lock.

 

mine was the water pump tho. £40 for the part, £60 labour.

  • Author

well spent a good 2 hours in the dark and pissing rain with my mate drainin the system and refilling...hot air started blowing through.. we carried on made sure she was as full as poss and .. thought we had it solved.. drove him home .. a good 16 miles temp gauge was fine drove fine.. pulled up at his.. could see steam... open bonnet get a face full of water lol.. there has to be a leak or crack in radiator somewhere as it was coming off the fan and spraying everywhere.. couldnt see what was wrong with it as it was 2 dark and as you all know there isnt alot of room to move for a better view in the engine bay.. going to get my mechanic to take a look and see if he has better luck!

  • Author

my mechanic is going to have a look on tuesday hopefully! i trust him so he should be able to tell me whats needed if anything!.. i have a week off 2nd week in nov which i am planning on doing some spray work to the car, removing standard spoiler etc. just a quick one.. if (fingers crossed i dont) i need a new rad.. i would probably upgrade to an aftermarket one.. any suggestions as to what to get and im assuming it isnt to hard a task to replace!

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Author

update on this .. my mechanic has had my car for over 2 weeks now.. initially thought it was just the water pump had gone but on closer inspection.. ALOT of pipes are totally perished.. has now taken the inlet manifold off to find alot of small water pipes that all need replacing as water is pissing out everywhere!.. are these easy to come by? im going down there this afternoon to have a look and see exactly what he means but he has been quoted 4th dec delivery for the parts from japan... i xant wait that long :| i want my car back :'(

i had this mate last month,

 

try the easy/free option of an air lock.

 

mine was the water pump tho. £40 for the part, £60 labour.

 

Who the hell fitted a water pump for £60? thats a fookin bargain.

 

And a water pump at £40 was good too, lets hope it wasnt a Z31 one!!!

  • Author

yeah to be honest i dont really know what he was talkin bout when he told me on the phone .. so when i have been down there i will have more info to start asking about lol! but he said he was surprised the car evan ran.. considering someone has clearly mistreated the car previously :(

Alot of the pipes do perish with age bear in mind these cars ar knocking on for 20.

 

Best thing you can do is do a plenum bypass and replace all the other hoses left afterwards, When i first got mine i reckon it cost me about a grand to get the whole cooling system (water pump, rad, matrix hoses, top and bottom rad hoses, turbo water pipes etc etc)sorted but its well worth it as its the most critical part to the engine surviving.

  • Author

a plenum bypass? whats that.. surely you dont really want to be bypassing anything to do with cooling on a v6 with twin tubs?

The plenum is watercooled with water from the cooling system, seen as no real benifit to the cars performance or cooling many, many people have done it as it saves you replacing countless pipes under there.

  • Author

ahh i see sounds promising as my bill is already topping the far side of £600 lol... so what does need replacing if the bypass is done?

Zed was my everyday car and iv bn lost without it for the past 2months and still dont know when it will be finished if that helps! being aStudent 1car is hard enough to finance so i cant afford another!

  • Author

ok spoke to mechanic, one thing he asked is if the turbo's are ceramic or not? and if they can be bypassed.. as in will it do any damage? also anyone know who best to speak to about getting the gasket for the inlet manifold? ta

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