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Cooling system questions?


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I noticed yesterday after a long drive that a bit of coolant had come out of the expansion tank, maybe not helped by the capto exp tank being loose.....but anyway for piece of mind ive changed the thermostat and also rad cap(motor factors gave me 1.1 bar as opposed to genuine being 0.9



Ive noticed after driving around for a bit once the engine is warm the rad pipes get a little hard, the bottom hose is sometimes hot like the top and others not( i assume this is due to how long driving how long parked idling?



Now is the pipe stiffness serious, am i gonna need to do the headgasket or is there anything eldr?


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Really? Hmm maybe it might be normal then, wasn't sure it's always been like that lol.

How about the temp of the bottom pipe, if I'm parked up idling the bottom pipe warms up, not heard the fan kick in in this weather however...but if I pull up from driving and check it appears to be cold....that normal?

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An inconclusive update to mine, I took the car to two garages today, one of them put a coolant system compressor on the rad, pumped it up to 20 psi and left it ten mins, it dropped a little bit but he said it seems fine :/

He also put the pressure thing on and had me run the car, it didn't built up any pressure then which he said was good....he seems to think nothing's wrong weirdly

I then took it to another garage who had a quick look and said as the bottom pipe is cold(which it always is after driving it, only warms up if I leave the car to run) he said that meant there deffo appeared to be some issue but he wasn't sure what, possibly blocked rad, faulty water pump or hg, or thermo yet it is a new one.

He said to go back on Wednesday he will have a proper look.

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well depends how fast you reach to you operating temp so that the fans kick in


thats when you know for sure the thermo has open could also feel the lower hose hot



on the spot it could take a while for the temp to come up to temp since there in UK you have colder climates


but eventually it will open up or must open up if doesn't open that means stuck thermo has to be changed


Edited by Glanza AuA
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The first garage were unhelpful when I asked for a sniff tester, said he'd need to empty the coolant or some other bollocks, the second didn't have one so I've ordered one from eBay :)

for how much did you order one ? also need to get one of those but kind of afraid for it to changed color in front of my eyes lol

with means blown headgasket or cracked head :blink:

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well depends how fast you reach to you operating temp so that the fans kick in

thats when you know for sure the thermo has open could also feel the lower hose hot

on the spot it could take a while for the temp to come up to temp since there in UK you have colder climates

but eventually it will open up or must open up if doesn't open that means stuck thermo has to be changed

As I say it seems to open and warm the lower hose when the car is stood still, when running not so much, maybe because the radiator is cooling it with air flow? Have changed the thermo mate

for how much did you order one ? also need to get one of those but kind of afraid for it to changed color in front of my eyes lol

with means blown headgasket or cracked head :blink:

It was £35 mate, and yeah but at least you will know lpl

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Search ebay for block tester mate, if not ill link you when I'm on a pc?

Right the block tester has still not arrived, can anyone give me an opinion as I'm wanting to strip it down tomorrow if it needs a hg.

Basically my symptoms are:

-Pressurised and emptied the overflow tank once on a long drive to deans.

-after driving the car it seems to make both rad pipes go pretty solid

-sometimes if I give it a boost and then pop the lid off the expansion tank but leave the tube in it will make small bubbles.

-if I leave the car to idle the bottom hose will get hot as though the stat is opening as it should...if however I pull up and chem after driving the top hose is still hot but the bottom hose is flat cold, like the thermo isn't opening but I've replaced it and checked the old one which works fine in boiling water.

-sometimes the temp gauge in the car will drop in temperature when driving(coinciding with the cold bottom hose)

- I've replaced the thermostat, rad cap, and flushed the system and rad and refilled and rebled it all...

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It can't be mate pretty sure of it, I've tried two now and the one I took out was working fine with the kettle test, the other is brand new.

Taking it out will definately let it run warm because its like a big gaping hole as opposed to the stat only being a small hole even when open.

I'm wondering if the hg is going, causing boost to pressurise the cooling system and force the stat closed? Hence why on idle its fine, but as soon as I drive it goes cold

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