16v lost in a cloud of steam (now no fan)

[Jay23Sx 0]

Morning,

 

Well about 15 minutes ago I lost sight of my C in a cloud of steam.

 

I did my usual commute to work, about 12 miles with typical queues for this time of the day, got in about 8 and parked up. As soon as I switched off the engine, and I mean to the second, I heard a great big hiss and was enveloped in steam.

 

Once I could see what I was doing I found a great bit puddle of coolant running down the road. Looking under the hood I couldn't see any obvious pipe problems, with coolant mostly on the subframe and on the side of the airbox and very little anywhere else (none on the top of the engine or on the underneath of the bonet).

 

Any suggestions on where this leak has come from? I can't really have a better look until everythings cooled down.

 

Cheers.

[Supercharged 2]

Could be anywhere to be honest... best to let it cool

 

It will be a split pipe if it's lost that much so quickly - have any been changed?

 

If not they are all coming up for 20 years old so good time to replace the lot while you can still get them!

[Jay23Sx 0]

Could be anywhere to be honest... best to let it cool

 

It will be a split pipe if it's lost that much so quickly - have any been changed?

 

If not they are all coming up for 20 years old so good time to replace the lot while you can still get them!

 

My initial thought was the bottom radiator hose, as thats where most of the water is located and it has emptied completely indicating a low down leak, but that was changed recently.

 

While I know it's still connected to the radiator I didn't look to check to see if it's still attached to the engine, I'll have a butchers when I go out at lunch.

[Jay23Sx 0]

Right, I've found the hose - unfortunately it appears to be one that can only be got at from the underneath of the car.

 

About 10" long, it runs from (at a guess) the water pump to the oil cooler in a straight line. It's got about a 1" gash in the side of it. This isn't one I've replaced recently (probably the only one I haven't).

[davidwort 0]

as soon as I read your first post I thought 'small straight hose'

Mine did exactly the same about 6 years ago, turned the engine off and it popped, small split in the side of it, it's closest to the engine, so a bit like the top hose on the back of the VR it gets the most extremes of temperature and gets quite weak over the years.

pain to do, but I did it in the work car park with a pair of water pump pliers for the spring clips and a lot of swearing and a scraped knuckle or two.

It's actually very short, which is the problem, as there's little room to bend it to get both ends to fit, a silicone one from the samco set was even more of a pig as they're not as flexible as the rubber hoses.

[Jay23Sx 0]

Sounds like the right one, I should correct my post as it's not the one that goes from the pump to the oil cooler, as I just worked out that also goes off to the flange.

 

This one is very short and has a step in it. It's partially blocked by another hose which is the main problem in changing it.

[Jay23Sx 0]

I've circled the hose in question, £9.99 from the dealers.

 

Hose 3 is the one that gets in the way, may be made a little easier by removing the bottom radiator hose as well.

[colinstubbs 0]

Look on the bright side - it wasn't Hose 2, they were around £45 (not sure if that inc Vat) each!! :shock: Should take too long to fix once you've got all the bits.

 

I had the Top rad and Hose 2 go within a couple of months of each other, replaced them, and then bought a set of Samcos on a group buy and changed the lot!

 

Piece of mind - priceless! :clap: 8)

[davidwort 0]

yep, that's it, but I did manage it OK at work in the car park in a few minutes, so can be done hanging over the front of the car.

[Jay23Sx 0]

Well mine just won't come off.

 

Working for a big manufacturing company we've got a maintenance department that's used to dealing with small spaces so the manager has kindly tried for me as well with no luck. They are going to go back during there tea break, cut the hose in half and try and pull it off from each end instead.

[davidwort 0]

sorry, you've now reminded me that the old hose ends were pretty well bonded to the metal pipes, I think I used a stanley blade to split the hose all the way along to help removing it.

[Jay23Sx 0]

Finally managed to change it today (well, maintenance at work did) and this is how much the hose had split.

 

Edit: Sorry about the bad cam pic, borrowed a work phone again. If you don't know this hose it's about 6" long and split runs almost th entire length.

[colinstubbs 0]

That would deffo leak like a bastard!! :lol: :lol:

[Jay23Sx 0]

Well as I said, it dropped all of the coolant (what's that, 4.5L?) in a matter of seconds.

 

Only refilled this afternoon after work (the hose was actually changed at lunch) and pleased to say it appears to be water tight, although I'll know more after a few days of course.

[colinstubbs 0]

Nice when it's a relatively simple fix. 8)

[Jay23Sx 0]

It was, although my fan isn't running any more so I'm having to be careful of the temp.

 

I don't think this caused the problem in the first place, because I'm pretty sure the fan was working up until the hose problem. Need to run a few checks and avoid journeys which may include getting stuck in traffic for the time being.

 

Any suggestions now I've mentioned it? I want to bridge the terminals first to check the fan actually works still but haven't had time to do it yet. I've checked for any wires that may have been knocked off while we struggled with the hose but couldn't find any.

 

The fuse may also be something to check as the fan was probably running when the hose burst, maybe blowing a fuse in the process?

[colinstubbs 0]

Always worth a fuse check first, it's so easy to dive straight into in-depth fault diagnosis and miss the obvious!!! :lol: 8)

[Jay23Sx 0]

Well I changed the fuse last night, let the car sit there and warm up and at about 90 on the water gauge the fan started, was on for about a minute and stopped. Not long after it came back on again.

 

Great I thought, it was the fuse. Until I tested the fuse (it was a full sealed opaque one) and it came up as good. Now either I was imagining the fact that the fan wasn't running, it's OK on speed 1 but not 2 or a simple "switch it off and on again" solved it.

 

Haven't decided which yet.