HI Folks, opinions requested, I had to go to a family funeral in Aberdeen a week back, have not had any problems really with the car in 3 years, got to Aberdeen (300 miles) and on parking up noticed the exhaust seemed to be steaming so before setting off on the return 3 hours later decided to check the coolant level.
This had gone down and needed a litre to refill, topped it up and drove back as no other option. On return and cool down another litre had gone so parked up till full investigation could be made, convinced myself the head/gasket had gone apart from the coolant loss there are no other symptons.
Vehicle had never overheated in the three years and didn't overheat on this run, either there or back and due to the head horrors on here I watch the guage as much as my mirrors.
I decided to flush the system and have been doing this yesterday and this morning.
Now with thermostat out and suspect its goosed I've refilled with water, ran it for half an hour and miraculously the steaming has stopped, now I understand the engine didn't get to operating temps but flow through the rad was good with no leaks there or in the pipework, also the flushed coolant was nice n pink with no rust/crap/etc so my reckoning is the permanently shut thermostat was the steaming cause, the heated coolant turning to steam and venting through the rocker breather into the turbo and out through the tailpipe.
Anyone into agreement on this diagnosis or think its still a head problem.
The car runs sweet as a nut, is used daily and now has 140 k on it, I service it every 3 grand, 5000 k, 10k for filters and the only other problem I've had is the starter refurb at 120k and batteries draining after 3 days butthat I can live with. Hazzo
This had gone down and needed a litre to refill, topped it up and drove back as no other option. On return and cool down another litre had gone so parked up till full investigation could be made, convinced myself the head/gasket had gone apart from the coolant loss there are no other symptons.
Vehicle had never overheated in the three years and didn't overheat on this run, either there or back and due to the head horrors on here I watch the guage as much as my mirrors.
I decided to flush the system and have been doing this yesterday and this morning.
Now with thermostat out and suspect its goosed I've refilled with water, ran it for half an hour and miraculously the steaming has stopped, now I understand the engine didn't get to operating temps but flow through the rad was good with no leaks there or in the pipework, also the flushed coolant was nice n pink with no rust/crap/etc so my reckoning is the permanently shut thermostat was the steaming cause, the heated coolant turning to steam and venting through the rocker breather into the turbo and out through the tailpipe.
Anyone into agreement on this diagnosis or think its still a head problem.
The car runs sweet as a nut, is used daily and now has 140 k on it, I service it every 3 grand, 5000 k, 10k for filters and the only other problem I've had is the starter refurb at 120k and batteries draining after 3 days butthat I can live with. Hazzo
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