Coolant leak/overheating

[Mustang Baz]

Beautiful morning so 40 min drive to work; to find water hissing and spitting from water filler cap (fitted properly) after I parked up. Temp guage still showed 90 max during drive, and it is coolant (blue/sweet to taste).

Have been fastidious about checking water each day and as guidance, had 50% water/50% coolant mix about 1cm above the elbow of horizontal pipe, so a little concerned now about this. Help!! :(

[NCE 61]

SOunds as though it is just a bit over filled, they do tend to find their own level. I usually just top mine up to the bottom of the filler neck.

[powerlord]

yeh, keep an eye on it, but this is normal.

In fact mine did it last night after a 2 hour blast.

estimate the amount of water that's come out. If it's not too much (couple of cups full), then leave it and see if it does it again. Chance are it won't..just just gave it a bit too much coolant and it only shows itself when it gets really hot for a while (soaked heat).

stu

[justinp1]

I agree, same happened to me. At a certain pressure, a valve in the cap releases the pressure so you get a jet of steam and water which should stop with an abrupt halt when the valve snaps shut again when the pressure returns to normal. I have heard that over time some of the caps fail, however this is unlikely. If it is, the replacement is a VW part I got for about a fiver at my local dealership. Otherwise im sure TVR can also get hold of one for you!

Other theory, which may be completely unsubstantiated, but happened to me, was that a temperature sensor/sender failed. Thus standing in traffic the fans never started. If your fans work though it is obviously not this!

Hope this helps.

[Mustang Baz]

Thanks for the responses. Am quite surprised it could be due to overfilling as I have always tried to see only about 1 cm of water/coolant at the elbow, but bow to more experienced users than I. Methinks carrying a spare bottle of 50/50 with me is a good idea going forward.

[powerlord]

yeh I know what you mean, but remember it's hardly a precision engineeered to the last micron bit of kit.

each is a bit different.

mine always spews out about 1/2 a litre if I fill it 1cm up the pipe...it just don't like it no matter what the manual says.

stu

[Tuska]

Mustang Baz said:

Beautiful morning so 40 min drive to work; to find water hissing and spitting from water filler cap (fitted properly) after I parked up. Temp guage still showed 90 max during drive, and it is coolant (blue/sweet to taste).

Mine was doing exactly the same thing and it turned out that the cap was faulty. It has some sort of pressure release thing that was stuck. Fitted new cap and have had no more spillages.