Sorry for the long post - but go on - force yourself to read it!
Bizarre.
Yesterday morning I set off for work as usual.
10 mins in I still had not heat coming out of the vents - odd I thought
Then a minute or so later, the coolant light came on just as I was passing a Texaco.
Pulled in & looked under the bonnet.
Nothing left in the expansion tank & it looked a bit wet on the hose underneath the tank.
Thought it'd prob just sprung a leak - but didn't want to risk anything - so filled it up with 2L of water & 0.5L of Texaco anti-freeze and started the crawl back home.
About half way back I stopped just to check all was well. (All gauges were within nornal ranges.)
Looked in the expansion tank to see a shed load of creamy coloured foamy gunk.
Thought to myself - Sh*t - head gasket......
Proceeded to phone the usual suspects looking for someone to help. AA Dialynx, QST main dealers ....etc
AA came & took me in a flat bed down to QST who had said they'd take a look but couldn't do anything till after X-mas (week of the 5th)
Resigned myself to thinking it was going to be $$$$$$$
But got a call today saying it was all sorted and was just a duff tank cap holding no pressure.
They flushed the system, did a cylinder head test & cooling system pressure test all OK. then did a 14 mile road test and declared the car with a full bill of health. I've just driven it back 50+ mile and all is good???
Bizarre!
So ok - the tank could have emptied because of the cap not holding the pressure in but where the hell did the foam come from???
(Foam seemed to have almost gone by the time the AA had got it to QST - ands still most the water in there)
(could the 2 antifreezes have been incompatible?)
(could an airlock / unpressurised system have just turned the coolant into foam by itself?)
(any other suggestions?)
I'm confused - but happy so far - its driving really nicely too at the mo - pissed off an S3 driver earlier & them brakes are just fantastic!
cheers guys
Alistair
Bizarre.
Yesterday morning I set off for work as usual.
10 mins in I still had not heat coming out of the vents - odd I thought
Then a minute or so later, the coolant light came on just as I was passing a Texaco.
Pulled in & looked under the bonnet.
Nothing left in the expansion tank & it looked a bit wet on the hose underneath the tank.
Thought it'd prob just sprung a leak - but didn't want to risk anything - so filled it up with 2L of water & 0.5L of Texaco anti-freeze and started the crawl back home.
About half way back I stopped just to check all was well. (All gauges were within nornal ranges.)
Looked in the expansion tank to see a shed load of creamy coloured foamy gunk.
Thought to myself - Sh*t - head gasket......
Proceeded to phone the usual suspects looking for someone to help. AA Dialynx, QST main dealers ....etc
AA came & took me in a flat bed down to QST who had said they'd take a look but couldn't do anything till after X-mas (week of the 5th)
Resigned myself to thinking it was going to be $$$$$$$
But got a call today saying it was all sorted and was just a duff tank cap holding no pressure.
They flushed the system, did a cylinder head test & cooling system pressure test all OK. then did a 14 mile road test and declared the car with a full bill of health. I've just driven it back 50+ mile and all is good???
Bizarre!
So ok - the tank could have emptied because of the cap not holding the pressure in but where the hell did the foam come from???
(Foam seemed to have almost gone by the time the AA had got it to QST - ands still most the water in there)
(could the 2 antifreezes have been incompatible?)
(could an airlock / unpressurised system have just turned the coolant into foam by itself?)
(any other suggestions?)
I'm confused - but happy so far - its driving really nicely too at the mo - pissed off an S3 driver earlier & them brakes are just fantastic!
cheers guys
Alistair
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