Hi All,

Anyone had the following 'symptoms'?

Last week on my daily commute (7-8 miles) I noticed my heater was taking an eternity to blow warm, temp gauge was normal

Now (yesterday) temp gauge shot over 3/4 mark & back down & continued to bounce between hot & normal (depending on whether car was moving or stationary)

popped the bonnet, coolant level fine, no mayo or over flowing ...no steam or smells, infact engine didn't appear overly hot, manifold could be touched as could coolant hoses, hoses didn't appear to be 'expanding' & water pump could be heard working ...coolant flow appears normal (hot hoses on drivers side, cool on the other)

car is running completely standard & had a full APi rebuild just over 10K miles ago ...it's 'mainly' driven like miss daisy, warmed up over a couple of miles & warmed down & rairly over 5.5K rpm due the nature of traffic

Any ideas as to likely cause? my initial thought was thermostat- but unsure due to temperatures 'bouncing'? or maybe coolant temp sensor? & hoping not the dreaded HG

 

Sounds like an air lock drain it all down and refill slowly should sort it out for you -i turn my heaters to full heat to get water into the heater matrix hth

 

I've just had the exact same thing. My symptoms were:

Heaters take ages to heat up then when hot, if you stop and turn the ignition off then straight back on, the heaters again take ages to heat up despite being on full 2 seconds ago.

Temp shot up were just stood at idle, had to drive the car to get temps down, more often than not had to be on a motorway as when driving around streets in low gears wasnt enough air going into front to cool it down.

And it wasnt a permanent thing, only happened sometimes. Temps never used to bounce like, was either hot or it was normal, never up and down, up and down.

... turned out to be a had a tiny hole in my radiator, that was literally squirting coolant out of it, and it wasnt a certain times either like on boost or high pressure or high temps, just seemed to be whenever it liked. But as it was such a tiny hole was difficult to tell i had a leak, until on day it sprayed out up my wing, bonnet and windscreen.

Had new radiator fitted at subaru for 165 bones and totally fixed the problem

 

Airlock or CTS?

 

a chap on here gave me advise when the same thing happened to me.. was an air-lock in the system, by the thermostat.

with a cold engine......take the cap off the little radiator tank, take the tube that runs from the tank to the turbo (held on with a spring clip) and fill this slowly with water until liquid starts coming out of the little rad tank. it might take a while cos you have to pour it in real slow. put pipe back on and cap on. life's sweet. check that you get hot air from yer heaters, and your away.

 

Couldnt see it in your list ..... Radiator fans working?

 

Cheers guys,

Quick update:

It appear's to be have been indeed, an airlock. Caused by a combination of a slight leak to the rad (loose hose) & by me parking the car nose down on my driveway & thus getting a bit of air trapped in the system.

I've changed the stat anyways as a precautionary measure (as a sidenote, I used a blueprint one, which was identical to the one that came out (including markings!) so this slightly contradicts the info that an earlier thread threw up) & I've changed the coolant (which looked like carrot soup!)

I've yet to 'kettle test' the old stat & it's early days yet but the car appears to be running normally again

 

my car has the same prob. I thinck it is the head gasket.

 

what do you mean by the little tank where would it be?

 

basically the little tank is the one with the radiator cap on it. its connected by a little tube about 3 inches away from the top left of the actual radiator (if your stood infront of it).

next time the temp gague shoots up, try putting it in neutral and giving it loadsa revs for a few seconds, this sent my gague back down again before I fixed the air lock.

check your oil for cheese (a nice bit gorgonzola in the oil is sire HG failure) and smell the coolant for strong exhaust/petrol kind odor. I guess that is a sign of a failing head gasket also.

does the car run ok on boost????

 

Has any 1 used STEEL SEAL for their headgasket?? Will it work???

 

It didn't work on mine!

 

was your car mixing oil and water together, or was it just bubbling water like mine is out the overflow bottle?

 

Dose any 1 no any cheap mechanics in the stoke on trent area to replace my headgasket? Ive had quotes for £850 plus vat any 1 had better?

 

hi my car is back on road it wasnt the headgasket. All it was, it needed a new coolant cap becuz the mechanism wasnt letting presure out on the old 1. Your problem did sound smilar 2 mine thats why im repliying have a try change bur cap on header tank.

 

My car is working it wasnt the headgasket. All it was is that i needed a new cap for the header tank becuz it wasnt realising any pressure. Thanx 4 ur advice mate.

 

N77... phew, glad to hear it was just the cap.

But answering your question (for future reference)... then should you be unlucky at some point for your HG to fail , then API currently do the job for £700 +VAT! which, as a matter of course, includes all-metal STi v.1-4 HGs.

Also, API just happen to be one of the best engine builders, to boot!

 

hello i have water (excuse my french) pissing from the water pump, she does this when she is idling , the temp gauge shot up like crazy and i put water into her, if i fill it she leaks but as soon as i put the cap on she stops.......please dont tell me this is the head warped and head gasket problems????? any ideas lads??? she is an sti lookalike, but under the hood is a 16v 1.6i.....

 

This is very odd, I thought my headgasket was gone..

But I have no symptoms but slow bubbling in my little overflow bottle when I go out for a hard drive.

The rad cap never looks pressurised ever, yet if you take the lid off, coolant will almost kill you.

I'm going to try a new rad cap tomorrow!

 

see now my car has started doing the same thing.

driving my car the other day and it was going up to 100deg on my defi but the gauge in the car was not going above normal half way. (v3 classic sti). the heaters were taking ages to warm up as well so i checked the water and it was very low. so i filled it back up and all was fine. running smooth still and heating is working almost as soon as you start the car.

but

i noticed a small amount of steam from the front of my radiator (alloy race one) on drivers side. have to inspect. but when i got home last night water seemed to have been pi55ing out of my overflow. loads of it. header tank was still full and i wasnt aware of any air locks in my system as when i filled it i let it run for a while with the top off. few revs and squeezing of the pipes to get it circulated.


any ideas if the leak might cause and air lock. why would it just pi55 out like this?

 

my car does the same come s out the over flow normally when iv given it some hard boost i think it an air lock.I keep hearing everyone sayin bout fillin up from the turbo hose but do they mean take the pipe off from the turbo or header tank end

 

When mine overheated, the needle only started to rise from the normal centre position (really quickly too!) when the temp reached between c.110 to 120+ degC. Don't know precisely at which temp triggered it - but somewhere between that bracket.

 

From the header tank.

You must also disconnect the narrower of the two bleed pipes too. It's the one that goes from the tank to the rad (not the fatter overflow one next to it) - and preferably disconnect at the rad end. You fill the system, using a funnel, via the turbo hose, slowly. When you see a constant flow of coolant mixture flowing out from that other bleed pipe, reattach the turbo hose to the header tank. Then reattach the bleed hose return to the rad.

You should now have successfully 'burped' the system of any air, as you would have been filling from the highest point 'downwards', so to speak...

 

well thats ok then. hotest i seen on defi was about 101-104. thats why it wasnt triggered. but i have to rip my car apart to find leak in front of radiator lol.

 

Your 'normal' running temps should be between around 82-91 with an average of about 83-86. In traffic, hot weather and/or idling etc, they can get up to around 97 odd.

Sometimes, with mild boost whilst accelerating on the motorway, the temp can drop to below 80!... but soon climbs again when you slow down etc.

Fans kick in at precisely 91 (or is it 92?) lol.

 

92 i think i record seeing. i usually run in mid 80s. so im hoping the extra 15-20 deg didnt hurt me in any way.

 

thanks mate what then just top up the rest from the header tank 2 fill the rad

 

sonic, when the water starts flowing out that bleed hose, the whole system is fully topped up (because that hose is attached beyond the highest point of the system i.e. on the header tank).

So if doing it from empty, it will take quite a while to do. Make sure you have enough coolant pre-mixed in a large jug/s or plastic container/s if doing it from empty, as you want an uninterrupted constant flow into the turbo coolant hose - just like when you bleed brakes.

If you stop and let the funnel get empty, then you are defeating the object and will intoduce air, and could easily create an airlock...

 

Radiators used to have a bleed screw/s and all you did was open them with a screwdriver and run the car up to temp. When coolant started flowing out of them, any air in the system would escape via these screws.

Why don't modern rads have this feature anymore?

 

bit slow sorry mate thought u ment the bottom hose off lol ok i know what you mean cheers for the advice. rob