6 weeks in and now a proper tiv owner....... a problem
Discussion
Well hopefully a minor inconvenience to be honest,went out yesterday and stopped to get a paper two mins from my destination.... on restart and pull away i could have sworn i saw a slight whiff of steam eminating from the trailing edge/windscreen of the bonnet..... as i was just about there when i stopped,i lifted the bonnet for a check but could see nothing wrong,temp was as normal at just under 90 degrees,nothing abnormal.... Went for a decent drive later on in the day,again nothing to report so put the car away happy
Today checked the oil...ok and checked the water in the expansion chamber as normal,all tickety boo,so went out again,this time however i did notice the temp reading higher than normal,so activated the fan overide to run them constant.... kept at around 95-90 which although not much higher than i normally see,its deff a different reading..... stopped the car and steam was rising from the front of the car,got out and looked underneath and there was clear liquid dropping from the radiator area,got back in and noticed the guage was reading just over 100 degrees now,so shut the engine down,left it to cool for several hours while it cooled down,went back with some water and took the blue expansion chamber cap off,and it was still full of antifreeze??,decided to take the brass nut off the swirl chamber and this revealed it was indeed empty.... further investigation revealed the front r/h side of the radiator was wet.... obviously where the leak was coming from,but im uncleer as to why the expansion chamber remained full when the system had obviously emptied itself??.... anyway,i had to get home,luckily a short distance away,so purchased some radweld, added that and a lot of water to the swirl pot,ran the engine till the fans cut in,no leaks were by now showing from the rad,drove home with a very keen eye on the temp,but the car behave impeccibly once again...... so the car is now awaiting me to remove the rad which is an aluminium version fitted by the previous owner in 04,get it repaired and tested somewhere and refit it..... but can anyone shed some light on why the expansion tank remained full? and am i suposed to be checking the coolant level there or at the swirl pot instead...... im thinking the later now
Anywhere in the Birmingham area reccomended for radiator repaires anyone??
Today checked the oil...ok and checked the water in the expansion chamber as normal,all tickety boo,so went out again,this time however i did notice the temp reading higher than normal,so activated the fan overide to run them constant.... kept at around 95-90 which although not much higher than i normally see,its deff a different reading..... stopped the car and steam was rising from the front of the car,got out and looked underneath and there was clear liquid dropping from the radiator area,got back in and noticed the guage was reading just over 100 degrees now,so shut the engine down,left it to cool for several hours while it cooled down,went back with some water and took the blue expansion chamber cap off,and it was still full of antifreeze??,decided to take the brass nut off the swirl chamber and this revealed it was indeed empty.... further investigation revealed the front r/h side of the radiator was wet.... obviously where the leak was coming from,but im uncleer as to why the expansion chamber remained full when the system had obviously emptied itself??.... anyway,i had to get home,luckily a short distance away,so purchased some radweld, added that and a lot of water to the swirl pot,ran the engine till the fans cut in,no leaks were by now showing from the rad,drove home with a very keen eye on the temp,but the car behave impeccibly once again...... so the car is now awaiting me to remove the rad which is an aluminium version fitted by the previous owner in 04,get it repaired and tested somewhere and refit it..... but can anyone shed some light on why the expansion tank remained full? and am i suposed to be checking the coolant level there or at the swirl pot instead...... im thinking the later now
Anywhere in the Birmingham area reccomended for radiator repaires anyone??
Sound s like you have a hole in the rad which has leaked coolant and also have a blocked pipe between the swirl pot and header tank so it can not refill the system. Take the top off the swirl pot then blow into the tank with the blue top to presurise it this will force the coolant into the swirl pot if not then the pipe is blocked.
My thinking on the expansion remaining full is that as the engine heated the coolat it's expanded, pushed the exces to the expansion tank and as the system has then been shut down and the coolant has cooled there was such a loss in the rest of the system that no vacuum was created to pull out what had been pushed to the expansion. It's only vent being to the swirl.
With the radiator leaking this would have allowed any vacuum/cooalnt to escape without providing enough draw to clear the expansion.
Can you see where it is leaking from, as on some rad's there is a bleed screw on the top corner o/s. Mine cracked and I had to have it re-brazed in causing a leak. Easy for the previous owner to over tighten, or not tighten enough ?
With the radiator leaking this would have allowed any vacuum/cooalnt to escape without providing enough draw to clear the expansion.
Can you see where it is leaking from, as on some rad's there is a bleed screw on the top corner o/s. Mine cracked and I had to have it re-brazed in causing a leak. Easy for the previous owner to over tighten, or not tighten enough ?
Try these, based in Digbeth:
http://www.readyrads.co.uk/
Did ours about 3 months ago. Approx 24 hour turnaround.
Was about £150 I think. Go for the upgraded core option.
FFG
http://www.readyrads.co.uk/
Did ours about 3 months ago. Approx 24 hour turnaround.
Was about £150 I think. Go for the upgraded core option.
FFG
Mine has done this before,
If the rad is split at a joint, then as it heats up its fine as it seams to seal itself but as it cools the joint opens up and leaks until the pressure equalises and then draws in air, as the residual heat drops, instead of drawing back coolant from the header tank (something like that any way).
Cheers,
Simon.
If the rad is split at a joint, then as it heats up its fine as it seams to seal itself but as it cools the joint opens up and leaks until the pressure equalises and then draws in air, as the residual heat drops, instead of drawing back coolant from the header tank (something like that any way).
Cheers,
Simon.
Thanks for the theories on this guys,interesting.... still unsure as to why the leakage was of one type of liquid,but the contents of the expansion tank are a very different type.... ill blow all the pipework out at the weekend just in case there is some blockage of sort....
FFG
Thanks for the reccomendation,i had found them when i did a local yell.com search,,handy for me too,but to get a customer comment on them is a big big help....ta muchly
FFG
Thanks for the reccomendation,i had found them when i did a local yell.com search,,handy for me too,but to get a customer comment on them is a big big help....ta muchly
rigga said:
still unsure as to why the leakage was of one type of liquid,but the contents of the expansion tank are a very different type..
If the system is overfilled with the xpansion tank being used as the point where the system is topped up, lets say with pure coolant, versus water in the rest of the system the coolant in the system has no where to expand to if the expansion tank is full.It will then force it's way out through the weakest point, normally the expnsion cap.
However in your case before the expansion cap was set off the radiator has given up. So it suggests that the system may have been overfilled and the contents of the expansion tank were not drawn into the rest of thes system as per normal operation.
It may also be that the pipe conecting the expansion and swirl is blocked. Check for any over tightened jubilees as it's very easy to crimp this pipe.
Johno.......thanks for that,ill check the pipework out completly,regarding the overfilling,i was under the impression that the expansion tank should be filled to about two inches from the top? this was how it was when i checked it several times in the previous weeks..... plenty of room for the coolant in the swirl chamber to expand into if needed i would have thought? i think whats happened may be that at some point previous some addative was added to the system by the previous owner for a repair of sorts,that might have clogged the system up, antifreeze has then been added to the expansion chamber and has stayed there ever since unable to move,the system has worked great since ive had it,temp control wise,included a couple of hours trip home on the motorway when i purchased it,i suspect the pressure build up and no where for the coolant to expand into the expansion chamber has caused the rad to burst??
Just a theory of mine as to the nature of the coolant/liquid that escaped when the rad went
Just a theory of mine as to the nature of the coolant/liquid that escaped when the rad went
_)Its not pure water is it? If its been raining the water drips off the front end of the bonnet and through the rad, and sits under the rad and drips off at the lowest point, so you may not have a leak at all!!
Try pouring some water over the bonnet and see if it shows itself in the same spot.
FFG
Try pouring some water over the bonnet and see if it shows itself in the same spot.
FFG
Ahhh, after reading FFG’s post and then yours again it starts to make sense. I suspect you do have a minor leak, drawing some air in and filling the header tank, but that not what the steam was.
I had mine for a few weeks, when on the way to work one wet morning, about a mile down the road the lights changed on me and I pulled up quick and promptly disappeared in a cloud of steam as all the water shot off the bonnet and onto the radiator, I also had the screen blower on so all this steam then got sucked back into the car misted up the screen instantly, doh….
Yes the area around the bottom of the radiator gets full of water or at best very damp and as the thermostat opens and heats up the rad up you suddenly get clouds of steam rising TADTS.
Cheers,
Simon.
I had mine for a few weeks, when on the way to work one wet morning, about a mile down the road the lights changed on me and I pulled up quick and promptly disappeared in a cloud of steam as all the water shot off the bonnet and onto the radiator, I also had the screen blower on so all this steam then got sucked back into the car misted up the screen instantly, doh….
Yes the area around the bottom of the radiator gets full of water or at best very damp and as the thermostat opens and heats up the rad up you suddenly get clouds of steam rising TADTS.
Cheers,
Simon.
FlipFlopGriff said:
Its not pure water is it? If its been raining the water drips off the front end of the bonnet and through the rad, and sits under the rad and drips off at the lowest point, so you may not have a leak at all!!
Try pouring some water over the bonnet and see if it shows itself in the same spot.
FFG
Be nice to think that,but i had to put 6 liters of water into the swirl pot,along with the rad weld in order for me to get the level back to the top,and be able to get home... so prety sure there is a leak there Try pouring some water over the bonnet and see if it shows itself in the same spot.
FFG
..... ill be tsking it out tommorow for get it repaired and hope nothing else is amiss,although as things come in threes my laptop went on me last night,i can access this site on my phone but not post anything,so sneaking on at work now....what else can go wrong??I had a similar problem when I had a 500 Griff. Took it into a local dealer he spent time bringing it up to temparatue couldn,t see a problem. Pressure tested it again couldn't see a problem.Anyway I would see steam risisng from the bonnett when sat in traffic for any length of time and gradually I got more and more annoyed because the experts where telling me I was imagining things. So one evening I started the cart in my garage ,bought it up to temperature and disconnected the fan.Turns out that the bolts that hold the head down I believe (the ones in the valley)were only finger tight,obviously I found this after the car cooled.I'm told this would have been since the car left the factory.5 mins later problem solved and about 400 squid wasted at the dealers.
FlipFlopGriff said:
Its not pure water is it? If its been raining the water drips off the front end of the bonnet and through the rad, and sits under the rad and drips off at the lowest point, so you may not have a leak at all!!
Try pouring some water over the bonnet and see if it shows itself in the same spot.
FFG
If you dab your finger into the pool of water and taste the liquid it will have a very sweet taste if it has anti-freeze in solution Try pouring some water over the bonnet and see if it shows itself in the same spot.
FFG
HTH
Paul,
I know what antifreeze tastes like,and the header tank certainly contained that,i stripped the radiator out yesterday,but due to a computor failier ive been unable to report my findings till now,still sorting things out so pictures will have to wait,but this may interest the lot of you.....
Radiator shows signs of where the leak eminated from,all at least the area,no visual damage to the core,so think the tank ends might have gone,the a/c rad sitting underneath the main rad has a massive wet area on the right hand side,so obviously a major leak occured,and explaind the coolant loss.... but as to the fact the header tank remained full you might all want to examine yours,the tank and the pipe to the swirl chamber was completely blocked,so every time i checked the coolant level in the tank it bore no resemblance to the actual level,its an 8mm pipe and over time has silted up for whatever reason,i need to get a sharp object down the hole to clear the rubbish and a new pipe..... ill post pics hopefully tommorrow to show what happpened,but id suggest you check that your pipework is not the same,or at least check the level by opening the swirl pot as well as the expansion tank..... just to be on the safe side.
I know what antifreeze tastes like,and the header tank certainly contained that,i stripped the radiator out yesterday,but due to a computor failier ive been unable to report my findings till now,still sorting things out so pictures will have to wait,but this may interest the lot of you.....
Radiator shows signs of where the leak eminated from,all at least the area,no visual damage to the core,so think the tank ends might have gone,the a/c rad sitting underneath the main rad has a massive wet area on the right hand side,so obviously a major leak occured,and explaind the coolant loss.... but as to the fact the header tank remained full you might all want to examine yours,the tank and the pipe to the swirl chamber was completely blocked,so every time i checked the coolant level in the tank it bore no resemblance to the actual level,its an 8mm pipe and over time has silted up for whatever reason,i need to get a sharp object down the hole to clear the rubbish and a new pipe..... ill post pics hopefully tommorrow to show what happpened,but id suggest you check that your pipework is not the same,or at least check the level by opening the swirl pot as well as the expansion tank..... just to be on the safe side.
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