[Mk2] [Turbo] Getting v P!55ED off!!!!

[Dan88]

i know i prob wont get much response cos im sure everyone gets fed up hearing about this sort of problem! but il explain my situation and hopei can can get some help.

My car was overheating regularly, so i took it to the garage, had it flushed out, freshly filled with new coolant, bled and ran up to temp, checked etc.

For the last 3 weeks its been running fine cant fault it, except it used up a bit of water (even though it wasnt leaking anywhere )

but today, the temp soares to the max!! so i stopped and had a feel of the pipes, they werent stupidly hot in around the engine and were all pressurised as i would expect (i.e squeezed them and they were quite hard) but the pipe under the front bonnet leading into the radiator (on the right side as you face the front of the car) was hot, but the one on the left side was cold.

Is this just a simple air lock?
If it is, how is it getting air into it seeing as it was done at the garage and been fine for 3 weeks?

Really need to get this sorted soon as im off to Trax on sunday!

Any help, advice would be very greatly appreciated. Dan

[Lou-Lou]

I'm sure someone on here will know!

I feel your pain though, used to have overheating problems with mine all the time

10 hours on the M25 was the best one, what a fun day that was

[Dan88]

yeh i hope so, its really getting me down cos i dont dare drive it when its like it in risk of the head gasket going!!

did you get your overheating problems sorted in the end?? because if it carries on being a problem car then it will have to go because i cant be dealing with the hassle

[BenF]

Dan,

Are you having to top and water, or oil?

Simple fixes ( but not that likely to be the problem IMO ..)

- Airlock in the top of the Radiator ( unlikely though as pipes were warm ..) - bleed from tap at the top of the radiator, but make sure you've got a replacement washer as they will leak if they're the original part still.

- Thermostat - but not that likely as you mention above the pipes were warm

- Heater Matrix Pipes : Would cause coolant loss and overheating due to lack of coolant. ( you had to top up at the silver pressure cap?)

However, I suspect you may have a HG that's on its way out, my Mk1 had similar symptoms as its was failing earlier this year.

To test if you're in Ipswich, try putting the engine under lots of load / revs whilst watching what happens to the engine temperatures.

If you know it, the A12 southbound from the Tesco Copdock interchange has a long uphill climb. Try that with lots of boost and revs - if the temperature gauge stays level, you're OK. If it climbs, ease off the throttle and cruise.

[Razor04]

Hi mate i sympathise with you overheatin probs, mine had the same kinda issues, a quick fix which may work for you is this: Remove the coolant cap in the engine bay, then switch the heater to hot and whack it on max blower, let it idle like this untill the heater is blowin as hot as it possibly can this should force out any air you got trapped in there. If you wanna do a full monty coolant bleed ther is a good how too on the knowledge base on the toolbar above. Good luck
By the way a new rad cap from toyota is only £15 this was the cause of my overheatin probs wasnt sealing properly so wasnt pressurising the system its worth replacing just to rule it out

[Dan88]

Thanks for that Razor, i had a new rad cap put on 3 weeks ago after its trip to the garage, i will try the method you suggested when i get home. i am just worried about getting more air trapped in there as it is the only car i have at the moment so cant afford for it to go wrong!!

Does it matter that my heaters arent blowing hot at the moment? i guess as the air comes out of the header tank, the heaters will heat up?

BENF

im having to top up water into the silver rad cap each morning (taking roughly half a pint each morning to fill it up)

only 1 pipe was warm coming into the radiator, the return feed back to the engine was stone cold.

Thermostat was replaced about 2 months ago

Had several HG tests and all shown up that its fine

[Razor04]

I have'nt actuallt tried this method of airlock clearing yet, I'll go and do it on mine now n see what happens i'll get back to you in before 5pm

[Lou-Lou]

yeh i hope so, its really getting me down cos i dont dare drive it when its like it in risk of the head gasket going!!

did you get your overheating problems sorted in the end?? because if it carries on being a problem car then it will have to go because i cant be dealing with the hassle

I had the thermostat and rad cap replaced, also had a new waterpump as that was on its way out as well, was leaking water.

I think I had a leak from some of the hoses as well, as a garage I stupidly used had gaffa taped some splits in some of the hoses rather than get new ones put in

I had a new head and a rebuilt engine in the end but don't worry I'm sure it won't come to that, mine was a very severe case!!

[Dan88]

yeh my the car had leaking hoses before so money was splashed out and new samco hoses were fitted all round the engine bay.

I cant actually see any water leaking from under the car, i could for the first week but this seems to have stopped now. i hope it doesnt come to that because i wouldnt be able to afford the repairs, but i love driving the car so much!!!

Thanks Razor, il await your feedback before i leave work

[Razor04]

Hi i've just ran through that procedure on my car n road tested it after, was fine no problems. You could try it on yours it may work. Both the pipes from the rad were hot on mine n the heater was blowin well hot, i topped up the coolant to the top of the filler neck before i started with deionised water, the coolant just sat at the top of the neck for a while then it will start to overflow slightly as the engine runs but not much. another thing i noticed a while ago is if you take the rad cap off (make sure the coolant is up to the top of the neck) then down by the dipstick you will see a coolant pipe that runs from under the car to the thermostat housing(this one comes from the rad i think) try squeezing the rubber pipe on it, when i did it i could see the coolant rising up and down at the top of the filler neck this shows there that the coolant is getting through the termo and round the engine (i think) it might push out any air you got trapped in there. Also lastly the biggest tip i can give you is to make sure you got coolant in the expansion tank (next to the filler neck you can gague the ammount in there by using the hose thats in ther as a sort of dipstick. If you anit got none in there it will suck up air into the system giving you problems. I also removed the little filter on the end of this hose cos it looked like it didnt flow very well.
Mark

[Dan88]

Brilliant Mark, very helpful, i shall try all of your points when i get home.

Il let you know how i get on mate.

Thanks again

[Razor04]

One more thing, the pipe work that runs from the filler neck to the expansion bottle can get bunged up with a ton of crap, take this pipework off and clean each pipe out (it all strips down easy) i regularly do this, run water through it in your sink make sure its flowing through there easy, i pushed a cleaning rod through each one a ton of rust flakes n stuff came out. I think this set up is a big cause of overheatin probs on the MR, if the coolant cant get in and out of the expansion tank easy the pressure on it blows it out the overflow.

[Dan88]

Morning mate, result is a success!!

when i left off work i started the process straight away, topped up with water and squeezed the pipes from the radiator, releasing quite a few bubbles from the filler neck. I done this process for about 20 minutes and kept topping up to the header tank to ensure there was plenty of water in the system before i tried your method.

Once this was done, i left the filler cap off, turned the heaters on max and started the engine, sure enough the heaters turned hot and i could physically see bubbles popping out from the top of the filler neck, proving that there was definatly air in the system. i let it run for about 20 mins to ensure it was all out. Stopped the engine, refilled and away i went home. Got back and the temp had stayed constant below the halfway mark, both pipes to and from the rad were hot, including the heatermatrix pipes and i had lovely hot air coming from the blowers.

Thank you for your advice, it worked a treat, top man

[Razor04]

No worries mate

[BenF]

Dan,

Ok, a couple of thoughts - you're losing a good amount of water - you need to find out where it is coming from otherwise you risk cooking the engine and causing the Head gasket to fail.

I'd remove the underbody panels under the fuel tank - to check to see if the heater Matrix pipes are cracked / leaking.

In terms of bleeding the air out of the coolant system - see

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/kb.php?mode=article&k=38

If it is the heater matrix pipes which are leaking, see

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/kb.php?mode=article&k=53

If the leak is coming from the timing belt / alternator side of the engine, that will be the water pump.

HTH

Ben

[Dan88]

Thanks Ben, i have printed this out and will get on it tonight

[Razor04]

Good points BENF, if there is a leak Dan88 gotta locate it, the pipes above the fuel tank may be leakin you wont see any water cos it'll drip onto the undertay n wont show on the ground under the car.

[diycinema]

Sounds to me as if it was never bled properly by the garage. There's a second bleed valve on a heater pipe near the top of the spare wheel. You need two lengths of tubing to make sure the pressure is the same in the heater system as the radiator. It takes quite a bit of time to do properly and the heater should be on when you do it.

[Dan88]

old topic i know, but im still having problems. to recap everything that ive tried:

new thermostat
several new rad caps
new pipes that feed the heater matrix (the ones that run along the top of the fuel tank)
there was water leaking somewhere (as discussed above), found out that it was leaking from the water pump so replaced the water pump and cambelt and pulleys at the same time
new anitfreeze in the system.

Got it back after the water pump had been changed, took it for a drive, absolutely fine, blowing out lovely and hot, holding the temp fine under boost etc.

Next time i took it out on a cold morning to work, 5 miles up the road and the temp began to fluctuate from normal (just below half) to just above half throughout the journey (which was only 20 miles) thought this was air in the system so bled it at lunch time. Ran fine all the way home.

Took out again the next day for a long run, driving it all day, absolutely fine until i was nearly home and the temp shot up to max as pulled in the drive. lifted the engine cover and the expansion tank was whistling, could hear the water buibbling in the engine

thought id got it all sorted once id forked out for the water pump to be done , running short of ideas on what it could be now because sometimes it was fine, other times it wasnt. any ideas people??

[Dan88]

another thing is that i can sense when the temp guage is about to go up because when i have my heaters on hot, i can feel the air inside the car go cold and then about 10seconds after, the temp guage goes up