!!Help required guys!!Still ongoing HELP advice pls

[phaserno1 0]

Well as most of you may be aware I was after a cooler hose from the top of the rad, well I got one at 89 inc V.A.T!!!!!. I put it on worked fine apart from a massive build up of pressure in the hose!, you couldn’t push it was rock solid.

Also I noticed a crack on the connecter where the pipe joined the rad…?….(easy to fix with new part).

The temp light keep flashing again but wasn’t when we filled it up again then steam started Cumming out of the crack possibly causing light to come on again.

Now I might be wrong but it could be the head gaskets yet I had them done about 6 months ago so I guess, I haven’t had any blue smoke nor white gunk.

It could be a number of things like :-

 

A) Cooler bottle cap not releasing the pressure correctly.

B) Blocked rad possibly (but I would have noticed that earlier I guess)

C) Head gasket’s gone again.

 

Any help would be nice on this one, I have ordered a new cooler bottle cap and the top part of the rad……so this might work but I might be totally wrong…

The car has had wicked timing as I was on my way to get my windscreen done for the MOT, which is now up as I didn’t make it because of the leek so its all go around here.

:D

[dr_mat 0]

Is the coolant circulating?

If you leave the expansion cap off and run it for a few minutes does anything weird happen..? (From a cool engine, obviously.)

Could it be the thermostat? Is the rad getting hot all over?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I reckon you've introduced an airlock or the thermostat is seizing.

 

Replace the hose that has a crack in it aswell.

[Henny 0]

sounds like an air lock to me...

 

Quick thing to check: with the system slightly pressurised, carefully take the lid off the expansion tank and see if it smells of exhaust gas or if there's a mayo style residue in there... if it does/has, you've got a leaky head gasket...

 

The expansion tank cap should only release pressure when the system has SERIOUSLY over pressured... old rubber pipes WILL split before it reaches that point... :|

 

when you fitted the new pipe, how did you fill the system back up with coolant? The correct way is to remove one end of the radiator top hose and fill it via that rather than just plonking it in via the expansion tank... this will avoid air locks...

 

I know what you mean about the top part of the rad, mine split as well and caused all sorts of problems when it went... :?

 

Good luck! 8)

[phaserno1 0]

Henny ""Quick thing to check: with the system slightly pressurised, carefully take the lid off the expansion tank and see if it smells of exhaust gas or if there's a mayo style residue in there... if it does/has, you've got a leaky head gasket...

 

The expansion tank cap should only release pressure when the system has SERIOUSLY over pressured... old rubber pipes WILL split before it reaches that point...

 

when you fitted the new pipe, how did you fill the system back up with coolant? The correct way is to remove one end of the radiator top hose and fill it via that rather than just plonking it in via the expansion tank... this will avoid air locks...

 

I know what you mean about the top part of the rad, mine split as well and caused all sorts of problems when it went... ""

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Henny

 

There was no "smells of exhaust gas or if there's a mayo style residue in there" whic could be a good thing not to be the head

 

When i fitted the new pipe the system filled up fine went straight through even throught the expantion tank without removing the other end of the hose ( will try that tonight tho m8 tx).

 

All the fan's came on when the system heated up to temp, thats when i noticed you couldent push the hose in rock hard....??....??

[phaserno1 0]

kevhaywire

 

""I reckon you've introduced an airlock or the thermostat is seizing.""

 

Could well be, i had that on another car that will be my next thing to do tx :D

[dr_mat 0]

I've heard that you *HAVE* to fill up via the top rad hose, rather than through the expansion bottle. (Counter-intuitively.)

That's the only way to avoid airlocks .. in the top of the rad...

[phaserno1 0]

dr mat

 

Do you mean undo the rad cap and fill the system up sorry for my Ignorance, new to me this one :D

[dr_mat 0]

Sorry, only repeating what other people have said - I've not done it myself, but from what I'm told you have to undo the top rad hose, and fill by pouring the water into there, leaving the lid off the expansion tank at the same time.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I've heard that you *HAVE* to fill up via the top rad hose, rather than through the expansion bottle. (Counter-intuitively.)

That's the only way to avoid airlocks .. in the top of the rad...

 

Yeah that's how VW, Stealth, and now Me does it :lol:

 

Doing it like this forces air out through the expansion tank from the bottom up. Filling from the expansion tank does the opposite, it introduces air!

[phaserno1 0]

tx will do it tonight and let you know tommrow tx very much for you help

[Henny 0]

yup... I do mine that way too now Kev... 8)

[PhatVR6 0]

the problem is that air coming out of the top of the rad cannot easily get back to the expansion tank. as the hose actually points down slight.ly, and the offtake back up to the expansion tank is off to the side of the hose (not in line like the later golf vr6's.

 

undo the hos clamp on the top of the rad and twist the hose so that the expasnion tank offtake is closer to the top, not poking out the side.

 

and run the car and apply a little pressure under the hose (ie lift it up a bit) so that the offtake is the highest point (i.e so all the bubbles can get out.

 

run it at fast idle and watch how much water (and air) comes through the ottake return hose up to the tank to see how effective the position of the hose is.

 

I worked this out after I kept getting an air lock in the top of the rad.

[Richie_FSOB 0]

Don't know if this will be of any use, but a few weeks ago my thermostat got stuck shut, meaning the water wasn't circulating, and some of the pipes were fit to burst due to the heat and other were still fairly cold.

When the temperature light comes on, are all of the pipes hot?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The temp light flashes when the coolant goes over 120 degrees I think. Fan speed 1 kicks in at 100 and speed 2 comes on at 110 along with the electric aux pump if my memory serves me well.

 

Yeah jammed thermostats can occur on the VR. I've had one jam shut on me and the expansion tank throws a bad wobbler. Coolant everywhere.

 

K

[exturbo2003 0]

check the seal in the cap as these get deformed and need pressure to raise boiling point

[Henny 0]

Kev, the standard Corrado fan temps are 92/84 and 102/96 (turns on first speed at 92 and stays on until it drops below 84, second speed kicks in at 102 and doesn't drop back to first speed until 94)

 

IIRC you're right that the temp warning light is set to 120 though.... 8)

 

exturbo2003 if it was the seal in the cap, you'd have a pressure leak, not rock hard pipes... :?

 

I seriously would say that this is an airlock caused by filling from the expansion tank...

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Cheers for the corrections Henny.... obviously my memory *isn't* serving me well.....or I made those figures up, one of the two :lol:

[Henny 0]

guess who's just had to fit a new switch... ;) :lol:

[PhatVR6 0]

Mine sits at an almost constant 80.

 

then again, I do have a brand new rad, hoses, coolant, and switch.....

[Henny 0]

funny that Phat, after tomorrow, I'll have the same now that my Rad burst this week... :roll:

Hope that'll drop my temps a bit... 8)

[exturbo2003 0]

Henny i agree with the principle of pressure loss but allows the coolant to boil at a much lower temp and so creates hard pipes and air in the system.

dont trust logic on this one as i have had about 8 like this in the last couple of years. i may well be wrong but dont disregard something that could be that simple.

[phaserno1 0]

Well after getting a new expansion tank cap and the top pice of the rad, I put all the new bits on and back filled the system which was fine when filling it up. Now my problem is when I screwed the new top part of the rad on and let the water flush throught the system.

I noticed that the water was just streaming out around the two flat joins????? Can’t work it out as I tried the new washer that seals the two parts and the old one but no difference???? Surly it cant just be this little washer stopping the water from coming out??? Surly there should be a gasket of some kind between the two plastic pieces??

This is a long shot but after getting it back from the body shop im thinking that they might have had the rad out to fix the car and didn’t fit it back together properly causing the problem as It has never caused me a problem befor they had it??? Ummm any thoughts guys as im abit lost now on this one……

:D

[phaserno1 0]

VR6 On going Big Headache Advice Pls

 

Right where do I start ( this is going to be a proper moan lol).

At present I asked two garages and they reckon that the rad must have been moved or taken out to do the “”Repair”” work to the drivers side wing/slam panel/headlights (shown in pic below)??? What do you guys reckon????

Now to date I have tried new washers on the new part for the top of the rad but they don’t seem to work??, its really puzzling me now and the mechanic that did it with me as the waster still leeks out of the two joins and the washer is fairly tight??? Is there something missing I wonder?. Conceding I only had the car back 6 days before the hose blow a hole in its self and this whole problem arrived.

This morning I spoke to my insurance company and they phoned the body shop responsible for the work, they phoned back and said “ they didn’t move the rad as it was a repair job” ummm I thought so how come there was no coolant in the system it would have stained the engine bay right? Me thinks so and the pavement.

I also phoned my mechanic who said there would have been coolant in the system as he done all the work on the head 5month previous??? So how come no coolant?? As I haven had to fill it up (was waiting for next service this month).

Things are just not adding up now after replacing the hose, expansion cap, top part of the rad with all new parts and back filled the system. This is going to be a tricky one me thinks as they have already said the didn’t move/take it off it my work against there’s.

There is no logical explanation for this to happen other wise, as the car had been maintained to a high std. I have got a independent engineer Coming out tomorrow to access my second clam this month also I have to go to convince him about this ordeal from the first repair and the whole dilemma with this cooling problem.

 

Now someone said to me that the pressure might have stressed the bottom part of the rad so it is not slightly bigger causing water still to seep out??? What do you guys recon?

 

Sorry for the big rant but this is really annoying me as I cant drive it any where to get someone to look at it properly, How much is a New or recon Rad I know its going to hert !!!

 

1 very p***ed person now! :mad:

 

Note (iknow this is bad but)

If any is asked to take there car to FROST CARS HENFIELD dont if you have any sense.

[exturbo2003 0]

sorry to hear that you are having this prob mate

got a pic of the part of the rad you are having a prob with and maybe one of us can check it out for you