Sorry everyone another head gasket question

[Yash 0]

I've been reading other posts on this subject for the last hour and im still not too sure what the problem is.

 

Heres the background, changed the coolant about three weeks ago, that went fine, no airlocks, followed the advice from members on here and refilled the rad through the top hose. havent had any problems since.

 

Last night on the way back from work i noticed steam coming from the bonnet, the coolant temp was reading around 90. i pulled over popped the bonnet and a fair amount of steam was pouring out.

 

So i called the AA, they turned up in 20 mins (was quite impressed), managed to find the problem, the rad top hose had a split on the engine end of it. Repaired the split, put it back on and then filled up the expansion tank with water. (I forgot to tell him to top up the rad through the top hose), we left the expansion tank cap off to get rid of any airlocks, after 5 mins the expansion tank was overflowing and spitting, a lot more then i would expect an airlock to create. We had a look at the oil, thats very clean, theres no oil in the coolant, the AA man done the carbon dioxide test thing and that didnt suggest head gasket failure. So we left the engine for a few mins topped up with water again and tried restarting. as soon as the temp hit around 90 the water level was rising and dropping and then starting to overflow and spit, there was a lot of white smoke coming out of the exhaust but it was cold last night so it could be condensation. ended up having to get the car towed as we were confused as to what was making the coolant bahave like this.

 

Anybody got any ideas, i know if the head gasket has gone, gasses will be in the coolant making this occur but it didnt show up on the test and the oil and coolant are clean and the car is idling fine.

[h100vw 0]

They do spit out coolant when they reach temp. The cap holds pressure making it boil at a higher temp. Stick the cap on and drive it a bit, see what happens. Charge your mobile or drive on bus routes in case!! :mrgreen:

 

I think it's OK.

 

Gavin

[Yash 0]

CheersH100VW, ill take another look at it tonight when i get home, just worried about driving it incase i do any damge to it.