Help - airlock
14 February 2011 | 09:07 PM
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From: Hampshire
Help - airlock
Evening all - thanks for taking the time to read the following. Apologies in advance if I don't explain very well, and for a lengthy post, just want to get everything down......
I've just had the cambelt replaced on my 01 bug-eye WRX. I take it to a mate at an independent garage, as he's a fellow Scoob owner and I like to give him the work.
During the job he said that he had to remove the rad and drain the system - whether that's the correct way I don't know.
He said that when refilling the rad he had a problem with an airlock that it took him ages to get rid of. I picked up the car tonight and took it for a bit of a run.
During the trip, about 15 - 20 mins, I took it to about 5000rpm on a couple of occasions and 'opened it up a bit'. I did notice, however, that the oil light glowed just slightly, not really very bright at all. I slowed right down and headed home. The light, sure enough, went out.
As it had gone out, I decided to do one last quick burst up the last hill home to see if it was related to being driven a bit harder. Nothing happened. Not wanting to take any further risks, I took it home.
On getting back on the drive I noticed that there was quite a bit of steam coming out of the bonnet whilst it was still running. The fan came on too.
I turned the engine off and popped the bonnet. On opening it up I could hear a bubbling noise - like a kettle on a rolling boil coming from the pipes somewhere near the intercooler on the drivers side. When I squeezed the top pipe slightly at the top of the rad at the front of the car, the bubbling seemed to reduce a bit.
I'm guessing the car still has an air lock, but my questions are:
1) Is it definitely an air lock, or worse?
2) Have I potentially blown the gasket etc whilst taking for a run with an airlock?
3) Will it be okay to drive it back to the garage to have the air lock removed tomorrow - I'm not a particularly competent home mechanic.
Any thoughts would be really appreciated - I haven't the cash to pay for a head skim etc at the moment and I'm a bit worried I've done some serious damage.
Best,
Roland
I've just had the cambelt replaced on my 01 bug-eye WRX. I take it to a mate at an independent garage, as he's a fellow Scoob owner and I like to give him the work.
During the job he said that he had to remove the rad and drain the system - whether that's the correct way I don't know.
He said that when refilling the rad he had a problem with an airlock that it took him ages to get rid of. I picked up the car tonight and took it for a bit of a run.
During the trip, about 15 - 20 mins, I took it to about 5000rpm on a couple of occasions and 'opened it up a bit'. I did notice, however, that the oil light glowed just slightly, not really very bright at all. I slowed right down and headed home. The light, sure enough, went out.
As it had gone out, I decided to do one last quick burst up the last hill home to see if it was related to being driven a bit harder. Nothing happened. Not wanting to take any further risks, I took it home.
On getting back on the drive I noticed that there was quite a bit of steam coming out of the bonnet whilst it was still running. The fan came on too.
I turned the engine off and popped the bonnet. On opening it up I could hear a bubbling noise - like a kettle on a rolling boil coming from the pipes somewhere near the intercooler on the drivers side. When I squeezed the top pipe slightly at the top of the rad at the front of the car, the bubbling seemed to reduce a bit.
I'm guessing the car still has an air lock, but my questions are:
1) Is it definitely an air lock, or worse?
2) Have I potentially blown the gasket etc whilst taking for a run with an airlock?
3) Will it be okay to drive it back to the garage to have the air lock removed tomorrow - I'm not a particularly competent home mechanic.
Any thoughts would be really appreciated - I haven't the cash to pay for a head skim etc at the moment and I'm a bit worried I've done some serious damage.
Best,
Roland
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