Overheating and loosing water

[tvr_edd]

I've looked through the searches but my searches doesn't work on my computer just hangs up after a long time

My temp guage seems to be all over the place, ie it is happily sat at 80 and suddenly jumps to 100 and then bounces back down so i question the real accuracy of the guage at times.

However i was out in traffic and the car was sat at about 100 and had been getting hot (this was about 3 weeks ago)and suddenly the temp jumped up off the scale so immediately turned engine off and let it cool down.
Drove home and once moving it went down to 80 and was fine.

Checked the coolant level and it needed about 1.5 litres so topped it up but didn't bleed it as was unsure if it needed it...

Anyway went out for a drive and it kept getting hot again up to 100 and then would cool down to 80, then back to 110 and this was constant driving so knew something was wrong, also when i went to park up steam would come up out of left side of bonnet. Turned out the cap wasn't on tight enough, so filled up with water again and made sure cap was on tight...

Went out again, only for 5 min drive and it got too hot again ie 100, went to stop at garden centre with the missus and when i had parked up, noticed a trail of water for about 15 metres and it was steaming up again... this time somewhere underneath the panel

Haven't used the car since, although had to move it a couple of times on the drive and when i have moved it it is leaking water on the floor (not masses but enough to concern me)

Do you think i have a split pipe or expansion tank, as its definitely on the passenger side at the front. Also is the overheating due to the system not pressurising due to the leak?

I am semi handy with the spanners but the thought of working on the cerbera scares me and i'm flat out with work and miss driving my car

Anyone in the mdilands want to come and have a look or got any suggestions to help??

Am worried it may be the headgasket

help get me back on the road so i can try and lose my licence

[jesfirth]

If you put in 1.5 litres of water you may well ahve an airlock which is causing the overheating. Try refilling it and running it up on the drive. The pipe that tends to get the airlock is the large rubber hose leading to the rad on the passenger side. Sqeeze that and see if there is any air in it. The bleed nipples are the butterfly screws on the steel pipes either side of the engine. You might need to bleed and refill a few times to get it right. Hope this helps

[jon h]

If the dial is jumping up and down, you have an airlock in the system. There is a bleed cap on the radiator at the top on the drivers side, and there are 2 bleed valves, in the metal water pipes on the front of the engine near the top. I filled the system with the engine idling so that water is circulating as you fill, to get all the air out.

I had all my cooling system in bits over the winter (except the pump). There is nothing really difficult about working on it, but as ever, it can be a bit fiddly.

Whereabouts in the Midlands are you?

Jon H

[tvr_edd]

Im about 5 mins from Lichfield in a small village called Shenstone

Will look at bleeding it at the weekend, can you just give a quick basic run down to best way to bleed it and how many times i have to do it

[gbbird]

I once had this, and had a big leak at the front passengar side - it turned out to be the radiator. I got it re-cored and it has been fine since

[jensena]

1. Undo the Big brass nut on the Top Right hand side of the Radiator.
2. Fill through the expansion tank until water runs from this nut, then re-tighten the nut.
3. Loosen of both bleed valves and fill till water starts dribbling out of them. then re-tighten them.
4. Start the engine with the cap off, and run the engine for about 5 mins max, keep bleeding both the bleed screws.
5. Put the cap back on the filler cap, and keep re-bleeding.

[UKBob]

What damage could be done if the car runs hot due to 1/2 a radiator full of coolant?

[SlvrCrb]

UKBob said:

What damage could be done if the car runs hot due to 1/2 a radiator full of coolant?

did you forgot to check your coolant level Rob?

[tvr_edd]

Jensena - thanks for your detailed help, will give it a go tonight and see what happens.


So where could/is the water leaking from - is it overflowing due to air leaks or could i have a split/cracked pipe/expansion tank aswell?

Thanks

Edd

[UKBob]

SlvrCrb said:

UKBob said:

What damage could be done if the car runs hot due to 1/2 a radiator full of coolant?

did you forgot to check your coolant level Rob?

Nope. I chucked in some radweld which slowed down my leak, and am always looking at the temp making sure I keep it topped up at all times.

[Neil P]

Usualy if the temp is shooting up high and then drops to around 80 its because you dont have enough coolant in the system. I had the same a small leak in the rad, you have to check the level before you take it out for a run. If you get an air lock the coolant will leak out under pressure from the res bottle filler cap. You can run them with small coolant leaks as long as you check the levels regular.
I,ve just spent a couple of days last week doing mine, new rad core and new coolant pipe kit, its well worth doing. If your rad has a leak chances are some of the core is blocked with rust and you could only be using say 75% of cooling capacity.

[jon h]

tvr_edd said:

Jensena - thanks for your detailed help, will give it a go tonight and see what happens.


So where could/is the water leaking from - is it overflowing due to air leaks or could i have a split/cracked pipe/expansion tank aswell?

Thanks

Edd

Water could be coming from anywhere in the system, I guess. I am told that the expansion tank can crack as it is above the o/s manifold and gets cooked a bit.

If your rad is playing up, you could have it re-cored. I got my old griff rad (same as Cerbera) re-cored for £100 at Warwick Radiators who are on the north side of Coventry. They also did a minor repair on the Cerb radiator when I damaged a joint whilst removing it, which is easily done, so be careful. If the radiator is leaking, there should be some evidence of an escape.

Mine overheated once, and with airlocks in the system I was getting steam out from the expansion tank region of the bonnet, but there were no leaks. Once the air was out it all settled down.

By the way, do you have 1 fan or 2 on your radiator? If you have an earlier car without aircon it may only have 1. I fitted a second and, combined with the TCS cooling chip as mentioned earlier in this thread, have never had a problem since, even when sitting in stop start traffic for 45 minutes on a hot day.

Jon H

[tvr_edd]

Mines a 2003 so hope it has 2 fans but will check later.

Definitely think i will get that cooling chip

Haven't had a chance to look at the car yet

[SlvrCrb]

tvr_edd said:

Mines a 2003 so hope it has 2 fans but will check later.

Definitely think i will get that cooling chip

Haven't had a chance to look at the car yet

The 2nd fan is for the air-con.

[tvr_edd]

Thanks silvrcerb


Do i have to remove any panels to get to the brass nut for the top of the radiator?

thanks

[SlvrCrb]

tvr_edd said:

Thanks silvrcerb


Do i have to remove any panels to get to the brass nut for the top of the radiator?

thanks

No, it's on the drivers's side top corner of the rad, just above/behind the pas fluid reservoir.

[purpleheadedcerb]

Don't want to scare the living poop out of you but mine did exactly the same thing, temp guage bouncing all over the place, continued to drive it like that for about 50 miles at about 60 mph, Outside temp was around -4 at the time. I just thought the guage was lying. Anyway, both head gaskets ended up going west. The root cause had been a leaking heater matrix and O/S water rail slightly leaking.

4k of engine rebuild later, its fixed really nicely! Someone else is enjoying it though as I'm no longer in a position to afford the fuel bills let alone any problems that might have arisen.

Establish the sourse of the leak before running it properly again.

Best of luck

Scott

[tvr_edd]

Purple - thanks for advice was/am worried it may be headgaskets but as soon as temp shot up too high i turned it off and didn't drive it again till it had cooled down so hoping that it is fine.

Update time then

My car doesnt have a brass nut in the corner but a plastic screw so undid that and lots of lovely air came out, topped the water up (all 4 litres of it)and did screw back up.

Now i couldn't for the life of me undo the bleed screws on the pipes under the airboxes, is there some special way/tool to get these undone? So i ran the car and topped the water up and thought i'd take it round the block a few times to see what happened.

Ended up driving the car for about 20 minutes and the temp didn't go above 85 and it ran beautifully.

However........when i got home after about 10 seconds steam was coming out of the bonnet and about 5 litres of coolant pouring down my drive

So is this because i didn't/couldn't bleed the vents on the pipes going to engine or have a i got a leaking pipe/split on something underneath the panel where the expansion tank is as this is where it seems most the waters coming from

help i wanna enjoy my cerb

[tvr_edd]

Just to add when it dumped the water the temp was 95 degrees and it went upto 100 when i turned it off

[FOXY4200]

When you say it was pouring out, where from?

I'm assuming you have checked the condition of all the hoses and joints?