She was Boiling like a kettle

[RazorRat9]

yesterday my mr2 decided to wind me.
I drove for about an hour on the M1,going about the 70ish speed,
and i noticed the temp gauge slowly creeping, 10 mins later and the gauge was past the red point,then the overheating light appears.
So i pulled over pop open the engine bay,there she was steam everywhere and the reservoir was shakeing from the coolant boiling.
I let her call down for an hour,Then topped up the coolant and bled the air from the 3 nipples.
within 10 minutes she was overheating again.
any ideas.
i think im just going to fix her then get rid,unfortunatly as i love the way she handles.

[Lunarmatic]

When was the coolant last changed? Was it good, clean coolant in there or brown gunky stuff?

Obviously check for leaks around all the coolant hoses first. Then a good place to start is replacing the thermostat and pressure cap. You can get the thermostat from Toyota and it's not expensive. You can get the pressure cap from Halfords, again it's not expensive.

If the thermostat sticks then the engine will obviously overheat the coolant and it will start to boil because there will be no flow to/from the radiator.

If the pressure cap leaks then I think the coolant will start to boil too and you'll start getting air into the system.

[Mk1 Turbo Powered Steve]

yesterday my mr2 decided to wind me.
I drove for about an hour on the M1,going about the 70ish speed,
and i noticed the temp gauge slowly creeping, 10 mins later and the gauge was past the red point,then the overheating light appears.
So i pulled over pop open the engine bay,there she was steam everywhere and the reservoir was shakeing from the coolant boiling.
I let her call down for an hour,Then topped up the coolant and bled the air from the 3 nipples.
within 10 minutes she was overheating again.
any ideas.
i think im just going to fix her then get rid,unfortunatly as i love the way she handles.

Please don't think of getting rid of the car,calm down ! if you love the car that much,might only be a small problem and i'm sure it's worth keeping hold of!

[RazorRat9]

the coolant was changed about 3 months ago, proper flush through with the hose then.
the coolant well whats left of it, has left some slimy gunky stuff in there.

[ligertigon]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news,.....
but I think you know what the message is.

Try replacing the rad cap, and check that the reservoir cap tubes are present and the right way around.

Bleed the air out as per haynes etc, and rev the engine with the rad cap off checking for bubbles, paticularly brownish ones.
If all hoses are ok, you could try to add a bottle of novastop and see what happens.

Otherwise consider the head gasket, which is not difficult but time consuming to change (12 hours for me), many mk1's seem to be giving head gasket probs around 140K, once done- no problems
hope you get it sorted mate [-o<

[hachi-roku]

Check if the radiator gets hot, as this may give you some idea if there is a blockage.

Also check the jubilee clips underneath the car, mine came loose on one and caused my car to overheat as I kept getting air in.

Finally think of the water pump... they have been known to fail.

And don't get rid if you love her, sadly I sold mine as I lost my driveway and had no where to do work on her (though turbo is nice)

Gary.

[ex_bo_driver]

Sounds familiar!

My car has had a minor leak for a while now (which I put down to a couple of broken jubilee clips which have now been replaced) and I was in the habit of topping it up before going anywhere - but on Tuesday I developed boiling in the expansion tank and a misfire

So, took it down the local garage who did a pressure test, and yes it was low on two cyinders!

However, the same garage had done a head gasket replacement for me less than 6 months ago (~£600)

So they have agreed to pull the head off and fix free of charge if it is another failed head gasket. Frustrating, but the mechanic I talked to this time around seemed much more clued up than the last lad they put on the job and he was quite insistent with his boss that they should fix it and give me a courtesy car ... although to be honest a knackered Corolla is more of a discourtesy!

Hoping to be back on the road again soon with all four cylinders again

[Lunarmatic]

Check if the radiator gets hot, as this may give you some idea if there is a blockage.

Yep, that's a good tip.

Finally think of the water pump... they have been known to fail.

Indeed, that appears to be the problem with my car. After changing thermostat and pressure cap it seemed ok for a while but now appears to be leaking from the water pump. It seems to be a much more common problem with the SC engines though (I know quite a few SC owners have had this trouble) possibly because the water pump is driven on the same belt as the SC (perhaps the forces acting on it are different?). I've not really noticed many NA owners reporting water pump failures but yes it is a possibility.

[Lunarmatic]

the coolant was changed about 3 months ago, proper flush through with the hose then.
the coolant well whats left of it, has left some slimy gunky stuff in there.

What kind of slimy gunky stuff? Do you have a pic? Brown slime would suggest that the coolant hasn't been changed properly in the past and the cooling system could still do with a further flush. Creamy slime would suggest oil/coolant mix so probable head gasket leak.

[hachi-roku]

Also just thought, try seeing if the radiator fans are coming on, I'm not sure if it would cause such drastic changes in tempreture but worth looking at them.

[RazorRat9]

bit of a nightmare today.
got my new thermostat today so i went to replace the old one,any way to cut a long story short.
I snapped one of the 2 bolts holding the thermostat housing together
now do i try drilling that out or should i by another housing bit,but knowing toyota they will charge a silly price for it.
also i did the boiling of the thermostats test,seems that was the problem.
the pink jelly gunge seem to have come out with a flush of the system.
Just hope the engine's fine [-o<

[System-G]

Pink Jelly huh?

Sounds like someones been putting the wrong coolant in the car...

You can not mix Alcohol based coolant with Ethylene Glycol based coolant as this is what happens. You should only use the Ethylene Glycol stuff available from Halfords or MrT for not so much money