Overheating etc etc

Garef

Member
Just took my car to get it's mot there, failed, no brake lights and needs new brake discs, cn't complain. However problem on the way back from the mot centre, gave the car a little bit of stick cos I haven't driven it for over 8 months and well it was too tempting, now it's only a two mile drive to the mot place and by the time I had got back there was smoke pissing out of my oil catch tank, there's no mini filter on it and usually it just throws out this yellow stuff, however this time it was smoke and the coolant in the clear bottle on the left hand side was bubbling away, also my oil guage went off the chart, up at the H. Not good, anyone who can understand this and has any idea what might be wrong I would appreciate you help, cheers.

http://www.gtiroc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47472

Thats the link to my car, if u scroll down to the 6th picture u can see the oil catch tank and the blue part is where I should have a small filter on it, if u look closely on the battery u can see the yellow residue that it throws out there.

Hopefully it's just cos I haven't driven it for so long.

Cheers.
 

Garef

Member
Sorry, just a quick add onto the above, I just went out to have a quick look at it with my mate, and before there was about a third of coolant in the bottle, and when we looked there was none, it was empty, I just refilled it to the max, please tell me that this was probably the problem, there was just not enough coolant in it.
 

jsbuds

New Member
run car up on a dry patch with full tank of water/coolant , it could even be a perished hose and a siezed stat, cos i know things in water WILL sieze if not run up. plus rubber will still perish its just a case of time matey. i'd try to change stat and as i said do a run up to temp on a dry drive way if poss and look for points of leaks . just my 2 cents. :)
 

Fast Guy

Moderators
Staff member
Make sure you top the radiator up, not just the coolant bottle.

If you have to put a noticeable amount in the radiator, bleed the system.
 

Garef

Member
I just filled up the radiator and it drank the coolant and water, took in loads and loads, I'm for sure now thats what the problem was, well I hope so. Any other ideas would help unless u agree that that was the problem.
 

Fast Guy

Moderators
Staff member
You may have a split water hose on the rear of the engine. (It's hard to spot the leaks from these)
Keep checking the level every day for now until you're sure it's not leaking.
I'd still do a search on here and bleed it if it took that much.
 

youngsyp

New Member
Just to add, you shouldn't fill the expansion tank to the max level. The expansion tank is used when the engine is hot, the water expands and has no where to go. Pressure will build and move the spring loaded radiator cap up, letting the coolant escape into the expansion tank.

When cold, you should fill the expansion tank up to just above the minimum level ! ;-)
 

Jonesy

Member
I'm running with no expansion tank, anyone else doing this, doesn't seem to cause any problems, makes a bit extra room in the engine bay aswell.
 
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