Total coolant loss

[icepop]

Went out for a bit of a run today, and after crawling through a town centre, where the fan kicked in due to the slow pace of the traffic, all of a sudden there was steam/coolant over the front clam/windscreen. Pulled in immediately, turned engine off, temp reached no more than 102 degs. Checked under engine cover, all the water had gone from the water tank. Getting recovered to CN's tomorrow, luckily it's on the AA parts and labour warrenty. I'm fairly sure it'll be a blown hose, as it seemed that the water loss was from the top of the radiator, where the hose is situated, but do you think I caught it soon enough to avoid any HG damage.

[Ikemi]

icepop said:

Went out for a bit of a run today, and after crawling through a town centre, where the fan kicked in due to the slow pace of the traffic, all of a sudden there was steam/coolant over the front clam/windscreen. Pulled in immediately, turned engine off, temp reached no more than 102 degs. Checked under engine cover, all the water had gone from the water tank. Getting recovered to CN's tomorrow, luckily it's on the AA parts and labour warrenty. I'm fairly sure it'll be a blown hose, as it seemed that the water loss was from the top of the radiator, where the hose is situated, but do you think I caught it soon enough to avoid any HG damage.

You'll be fine - 102C is perfectly safe and will very unlikely result in head gasket failure. I see 102C when stuck in traffic on a hot day

[Redlake27]

Make sure the dealer replaces both hose clips, not just the broken one, and it won't happen twice!

This happened to me. It was a failure of the 1p plastic clip that Lotus use. A 5p jubilee instead is a great investment.

[Scuffers]

more likely the radiator end caps buggered, they have a habit of doing this.

[icepop]

Thanks guys, if it is the radiator end cap, then is it replaceble, or better to put a new rad. on.

[The Bandit]

If its the rad end cap then its a front clam off job to replace the whole rad
How old is your car?

[icepop]

It's a '53 reg, standard K series.

[The Bandit]

I've seen 07 cars with <20k on the clock with blown rads,its a cheap plastic rad and the end actually splits/bursts.
Depending on where you are,take it to a specialist(Back On Track,Sinclaires,CMS etc etc),as i said,the front clam needs to come off to replace the rad. While its off probably worth changing the resistor pack too.
Sorry

[MX7]

I did a friends rad a couple of weeks ago. Given how much work needs doing to change the rad, it's unfortunate that they used plastic end caps. He replaced it with one of these.

http://www.eliseparts.com/products/show/84/221/alu...

Far better.

[icepop]

Thanks for the info guys. As it's under a warranty, that covers up to £500 per claim, I might like to replace it with the ali rad, if that proves to be the problem. What's the crack with the resistor pack tho' what does that do, and is it weak point, what sort of price, cos if/when it does give up the ghost, I'll just get the AA warranty to replace it again, you can have up to 6 claims in one calender year.

[The Bandit]

The resistor pack powers the blower fan inside the car and on the earlier cars was positioned right where it would collect water and eventually rust through.
This meant you would have no fan speed from your heater(always fun on a cold morning).
The replacement is pretty cheap so while the clams off...,just a thought
https://www.eliseparts.com/products/show/37/693/he...