Problem No 2 - Loss of coolant

[thecaptain]

Another problem I'm afraid. I will include a bit of background to see if this helps.

I went for a drive and did some fairly spirited driving. All good so far. Then came back into a residential area and therefore slowed down. I stopped off at a shop while my girlfriend ran in. I left the car running and after a couple of minutes noticed my temp gauge rising rapidly. I turned the engine off immediately and lifted the bonnet. When I looked in I saw a fast, high pressure stream of coolant coming from the bleed screw (or bolt?) on the radiator.

I have checked the car since cooling down. I can't find any cracks in the radiator at all. The only thing I noticed was that the rubber washer on the bleed screw is not entirely central. Also if I lifted up a bit of the rubber there was a gargling sound as if air was getting in/out?

As you can probably guess from some of my terminology I am not particularly mechanically minded. My guess is that I should bleed the coolant system, fill up again with coolant and refit the bleed screw with the rubber washer central. However I just wanted to check with the vast amount of knowledge here that I am not missing anything.

Any advice or ideas would be very welcome and appreciated.

Thanks.

Steve

[spend]

Is a rubber washer normal? I thought it was a fibre washer....

Dave

[jonathant]

it's a fibre washer on my '99 Chim and it sounds like your bleed screw wasn't on tight enough if you can lift the rubber washer?

Edited by jonathant on Wednesday 21st March 11:42

[simon.b]

I’ve had similar problems. Fibre washers work (tap washers from B&Q) but don’t last long if you keep messing with the radiator like I do. I’ve now got a home made copper washer, made from a bit of flattened pipe, this works fine.

Cheers,

Simon.

[Hoover.]

thecaptain said:

. I left the car running and after a couple of minutes noticed my temp gauge rising rapidly. I turned the engine off immediately and lifted the bonnet. When I looked in I saw a fast, high pressure stream of coolant coming from the bleed screw (or bolt?) on the radiator......

If over heating it would suggest the fans did not cut in, which in turn might suggest problems with the otter switch, thermostat or radiator.

Edited by Hoover. on Friday 23 March 19:37