steaming

[mort1414 0]

have a quick question

every so often my vr6 c decides to emit steam from under the bonnet some days its fine and theres no steam and the collent has not gone dwn and some days i notice a bit of steam and the collent level drops i have had a search and seen the most common problems but was wonder why it only leaked sometimes and not others and does this point in a certain direction as everytime it is light enough to c where steam is coming from i dont get steam and when its dark or i dnt really have time to investigate its there

 

cheers if any1 can help :help: :notworthy:

[renson 0]

Don't know if this is relevant but i had a couple of incidents with steam coming out of the engine bay. Mine was the rubber seal on the headder tank lid. It was caught slightly and would sometimes cause steam to come out. Might be worth looking at the lid, only take a second. Do seem to remember that the lid was prone to some kind of fault ant that a blue version was the replacement. ( could be talking cr*p :lol: but i'm sure someone will know)

[Jim Bowen 1]

i find with water leaks sometimes that only show themselves after a hard drive, and sometimes the leak is so slight that the coolant crusts up and can seal itself slightly

[colinstubbs 0]

The pressure relief valve assembly in the cap can fall apart.

 

Check it out, someone posted recently where he took the cap off and part of it had fallen into the header tank!!!!

[Andi 2,147,483,647]

Agreed, the first thing (and cheapest) to replace is the cap on the expansion tank.

And make sure its threaded on correctly - you can cross-thread it if not careful, and that ain't good ;)

[Leonard 0]

All the steaming and coolant issues I have ever had with my C have involved the upper and then lower water pumps

[mort1414 0]

cheers for the help got a few things to check 2moro

 

would it make any odds if i said the steam came out of the front of the bonnet probably slightly closer to the battery side and usually when the engine has been running slightly harder

[Leonard 0]

cheers for the help got a few things to check 2moro

 

would it make any odds if i said the steam came out of the front of the bonnet probably slightly closer to the battery side and usually when the engine has been running slightly harder

 

Thats where mine came out from as well. But it is worth checkin the little things first.

 

Give it a hard run and you should be able (just) to see if either of the waterpumps are wet

[mort1414 0]

ok water pumps r they easy to spot guess i just follow the colling system

[Jon_vr6 1]

Radiator?

Hole in a hose or loose hose clamp?

 

Maybe put a piece of cardboard under your car when you have finished a hard drive at least then you can get a more definate area!

[Jim Bowen 1]

rad, rad neck, bottom hose on the rad or where the sensor screws into the rad. If its near the battery.

 

i had slight steam coming from there, and two days later the bottom hose popped off

[mort1414 0]

have managed to have a look this morning and im sure its cumming from the driverside at the frount looks to be prity near the rad so i guess its that is there anything else that side that it could be?

[colinstubbs 0]

There are a few more coolant hoses at the front of the block low down on the drivers side going to and fro from the waterpump, as well as the rad hoses.

[Danny B 0]

I had exactly the same symptoms with myn last year and turned out to be tiny hole in rad.....it got worse and worse as the hole obvioulsy got bigger and bigger.....I think the only reason why you might be seeing it occassionally will be simply because of the direction of the wind which sometimes will blow the steam into the engine bay.

 

I placed a piece of carboard in front of the rad and behind it and the leak was obvious aftet that, myn in the early days of the problem was impossible to see by the naked eye becasue the hole was so small and the wind blew the steam in all directions !!

 

Good luck, hope that helps.

 

Danny

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yep, if a recent coolant spill hasn't dried off and the rad continues to steam from it's fins, it's almost certainly a rad leak.

 

At the same time air will likely be getting in the system and the matrix will gurgle when you shut the engine off as that's where most of the trapped air seems to accumulate in a VR6.

[mort1414 0]

P023.jpg[/attachment:smdqrg4m]yep its the rad

i tied lookin when the car was cold and found this

cheers for all the help :clap: :notworthy: i now just have to decide if im doin it myself or not

cheepest rad i found was £100 and vw want £200 just under so its decision time

[Jim Bowen 1]

for peace of mind the VW one is good quality, my original lasted 12yrs and 160,000miles

 

replaced it last year (worth doing a few other coolant related bits at the same time)

[Jim Bowen 1]

get stuck in and do it yourself, its not a bad job to do, i quite enjoyed it and found loads of other bits "to sort out" while i had the front end off, like small bits of rust etc

[mort1414 0]

yh thats what im affraid off the c is still my daily for the nxt 2 months and when i get it apart i will just end up replacing more and more till i end up sunday nite with half my car on the garage floor

what parts would you recommend replacing?

[Danny B 0]

yeah do it yourself, the proper way is to remove front end but I managed to do it with bumper in tact, bit fiddly but much quicker...... :D

[Jim Bowen 1]

i got a bit carried away when i did mine, but i had broken down two or three times just because of a coolant leak.

 

i think i did.

 

-new rad

-all the hoses

-crack pipe

-thermostat housing

 

 

how mine looked for a while :gag: (i got loads of pics of variuos bits if you need them)

[Jon_vr6 1]

Yeah have a go yourself fella you learn so much more that way and dont have to pay and arm and a leg for a garage to do it!

[mort1414 0]

would it be worth sticking a bottle of radweld in and see if it will stop leak as i still need to drive i and cant really do any work on it till nxt week?

[mort1414 0]

yh any pics u have would be great it does look like there is quite alot of rust what would the best way be to treat this???

[Danny B 0]

would it be worth sticking a bottle of radweld in and see if it will stop leak as i still need to drive i and cant really do any work on it till nxt week?

 

...when I was doing myn a few people on here said not to use it unless its last resort.....I would try and avoid it.