Steamed or Smoked Storm

[Storm Warning 0]

Well, first time out in the Storm for a few weeks and its ended unhappily

 

Set off to leave work, 2 miles later on the A1 noticed what I thought was just spray..duh.. mmmm, thats odd I am kicking up a lot of spray then I realised I was on my own doing that. As I started to slow the white smoke started to bellow from the bonnet and through the vents..

 

Oh I though, this is it.... I managed to get off the road very quickly and kill the engine. Flagged down a police car while ordering my Fire Engine..

 

Powerder Extingusher in all the gaps on the bonnet.

 

Fire crews (x2) arrived and took a look with breathing apparatus and a hose, couldn't really see what it was.

 

Smoke eventually died down.

 

So.. my question..

 

A friendly Garage has the car, but I doubt I will hear anything for a while till they get around to it so I would like to speculate to find if I need start crying..

 

Symptons: no visible burning/ smoke damage

No coolant left in system

No noticable change in Oil Level or Oil colour/texture

Car was running perfectly up to this point

Was driving steady

Water Light came on after I noticed the steam/smoke

Looks like it was coming from the rear of the engine, towards the top and on the airbox side.

No work has been done on the car recently

Didn't look like steam, and was fairly thick and pungent... but possibly not as much as oil or electrical.

It continued smoking 30 mins after the engine was stopped.

 

Guesses welcomed :-)

 

Thanks in advance..

 

btw, kick a man while he is down... check out my coilovers for sale and make me an offer.

[Dogzyboy 0]

Taking a wild stab in the dark here, as I'm a bit of a technical neewbie, but it could maybe be the water pump packing in?

[DanVW 0]

If you lost all your water odds are it must have been steam hope so anyway!

 

Fingers crossed its not too bad anyway!

[coolrado 0]

sounds like either a catastrophic head gasket failure or a burst hose, the coolant does smell pretty bad when it happens, a sort of sickly smell.

 

if your oil level is normal, there are no signs of fire, and you have no coolant the only thing it can possibly be is steam.

 

make sure you wash away all of the powder from the fire extinguishers though it wont do any of the moving parts any good.

[dr_mat 0]

I'd say it was steam. With the coolant in it can look really greasy and nasty.

[peanut 0]

id agree with headgasket failure on the rear left cylinder which is very common on the vr. The acrid smell in the steam will be the coolant, horrible smell really gets in your lungs

Gav

[Storm Warning 0]

The Mechanic has located a split hose over the exhaust manifold, hoping thats all it is. Only rolled a couple of 100 yards with low water level If it was head gasket, would the oil not have dropped or gone milky with the water?

[andy 0]

The Mechanic has located a split hose over the exhaust manifold, hoping thats all it is. Only rolled a couple of 100 yards with low water level If it was head gasket, would the oil not have dropped or gone milky with the water?

That would depend on how the head gasket failed. Sounds to me like you've burst a hose. Although you have to wonder what might could have caused that. Could again be H/G failure leading to a highly pressurised cooling system.

[peanut 0]

er...which coolant hose goes over the exhaust manifold? only one i can think thats near it are the pipes going to and from the matrix. Change the hose refill with coolant and see what happens. Might be worth getting a sniffer test done while your there for peace of mind.

Gav

[vr6storm 0]

isn't there a couple of coolant pipes that heat up the TB

[Storm Warning 0]

I don't know exactly where the hose is at the moment, but I will find out. It won't have to be too near to spray over the manifold though.

 

May I ask what a sniffer test is? and what reasons are there for excessive pressure. I was driving steady and after 2 miles it was still fairly cold at the time of the problem.

 

Could it simply the hoses time had come after 86,000 miles and 10 years.

[dr_mat 0]

It's the same hose that always goes first on a VR... It's a T-piece that runs from the back of the cylinder head to the bulkhead (for the heater matrix) but also has a small T- off it that goes to the top of the expansion tank.

 

It's about £40 from VW, and when it goes it often points to a failed gearbox-side engine mount. (Too much flex causes the hose to stretch at the wrong place ..)

 

I'm sure it's just old age. If you had excessive pressure you'd know about it - you'd be losing coolant all the time through the expansion tank cap.

 

(Bet you feel a bit silly now for dumping fire extinguisher in for a blown hose.. ;) )

[Storm Warning 0]

:-) No, don't feel silly for the Extinguisher, plod did that... I might feel silly about the 2 fire engines that arrived though ;-) It didn't look or smell like a hose to any of us at the time.

 

The car is overly serviced, and in the 5-6years I have had it I have manged to use a couple of dribbles of coolant and half a pint of oil, so it seems quite healthy normally.

 

So, what will break next? anything worth changing while doing this one?

 

thanks for the advice.

[dr_mat 0]

There's nothing else around that area that might need changing at the same time, it's pretty much a standalone failure. Just check out the engine mounts, like I said.