cracked head - "sniffer test"?

[another_convert]

Good Afternoon,

I've had my surf 2.4 td auto for a couple of months now, and shes been really good... must have done 5000 miles in her with no probs... I've done the good old... thermostat, rad cap, coolent flush and change.... so i'm hopefull of a happy life... (touching the largest tree I can find)..

Reading a recent thred on cracked heads, someone refered to the "sniffer test"... what is this? (sounding dumb I know).... The reason I ask is that over the past week (and 1000 miles) my baby has used about a cup full of coolent?

Cheers
James

[stormforce]

Good Afternoon,

I've had my surf 2.4 td auto for a couple of months now, and shes been really good... must have done 5000 miles in her with no probs... I've done the good old... thermostat, rad cap, coolent flush and change.... so i'm hopefull of a happy life... (touching the largest tree I can find)..

Reading a recent thred on cracked heads, someone refered to the "sniffer test"... what is this? (sounding dumb I know).... The reason I ask is that over the past week (and 1000 miles) my baby has used about a cup full of coolent?

Cheers
James

you more than likely still had some air in the system and its just found its way out and the level has dropped so just keep an eye on it and if it keeps dropping.

[Sancho]

Good Afternoon,

I've had my surf 2.4 td auto for a couple of months now, and shes been really good... must have done 5000 miles in her with no probs... I've done the good old... thermostat, rad cap, coolent flush and change.... so i'm hopefull of a happy life... (touching the largest tree I can find)..

Reading a recent thred on cracked heads, someone refered to the "sniffer test"... what is this? (sounding dumb I know).... The reason I ask is that over the past week (and 1000 miles) my baby has used about a cup full of coolent?

Cheers
James

From what I know, the garage just takes a sample of the coolant and tests it. If the head's gone, there'll be traces of combustion gases in the water and the thing will change colour when tested.

Head gone is normally signified by either dramatic overheating and spitting coolant out of the expansion tank or steam and a smell of hot coolant from the exhaust. Or both.

If you're losing coolant but don't have either of the other two, you've more likely got a small leak. Get it fixed though, because when a 2.4 overheats (if the coolant gets a bit low, for example) it usually cracks the head. Look along the top of the radiator for pin holes (they're common apparently), and check all the hose connections for tell-tale white stains. A garage can pressure test the system to flush out leaks.

[NiftyNev]

This is a cooling system combustion gas tester.



It's held over the rad cap position and the bulb on top squeezed and released to suck up any gasses present. The blue liquid in the bottom section will turn green if combustion gases are present. More effective on petrol engines than diesel.

Nev

[Pika1971]

I have seen one of those in a magazine I subscribe to, but it has nothing to do with cars...

[another_convert]

thanks

Thanks for the info everyone....

Just checked the level again after my daily 120 mile commute... no change... so I guess it was just an air bubble..... panic over... till next time...

[europa88]

This is a cooling system combustion gas tester.



It's held over the rad cap position and the bulb on top squeezed and released to suck up any gasses present. The blue liquid in the bottom section will turn green if combustion gases are present. More effective on petrol engines than diesel.

Nev

Doesn't It work on diesels then?

Hmmm!

Neil