3rd Radiator in 6-8 months! no warning, just pops HELP!

[concept101]

Hi Guys,

Im sure this hasn't been posted, as i have looked everywhere!

ok so over the last 8 or so months, my 96 VS Commodore Acclaim has had some cooling issues.

first time - driving for about 10 mins, car temp gauge went all the way up to H, very fast. then as quick as it went up, it went down again. got home to find coolant leaking from bottom drivers side. took it to a mechanic, who ripped me in price and then and twisted the radiator, and included the wrong thermo!

drove around with no problems for about 3 months.....

second time - jumped in the car one morning, drove 10mins and same thing.. rocketed to H, then came down again. thought it my be a faulty gauge.. drove it for another 5 mins... got home, radiator popped! got it fixed again! by trusted mechanic.. who advised that its better to take the thermo out for old cars like this.

drove around again with no problems for 3 months or so..

3rd time (last time!) - drove for about 30-45 mins, sitting in a bit of traffic.. then slowly it got higher and higher.. till, i got to work and its popped again!!!!!!!

car has been pretty good, before the 3rd time, i drove it everywhere. temp would sit around 2 clicks under half in normal traffic, heavy traffic it would sit around half.. fan kicks in and drops down to 2 clicks below half... checked water all the time and always had one eye on the temp..

please please please! somebody explain what the hell is going on!...

thanks in advance people!

 

[NeilB]

The suden temp rises can be caused by Head Gasket problems, this can also cause problems with the radiator as the carbon dioxide will weaken the radiator core welds especially in Alloy radiators. Have a mechanic or radiator shop do a carbon dioxide test on the radiator. They use a tube filled with a dye and remove the radiator lid and while the car is idling if the dye turns blue you could have a gasket problem.

 

[Wozza]

Hi
when you say radiator popped what do you mean..... header tank...hose ????
The radiator cap is suppose to be the blow off valve and the week point in the system, if something else is going pop before the cap blows then you may want to check the cap is working and is correctly rated....
The quick rise in temp followed by a quick drop can point to a sticky or faulty thermostat or one that's been installed around the wrong way (you should never run without one of these btw)

 

[VR38]

If you had the same radiator fixed 3 times and your having the same problem then it is time to buy a new radiator.

 

[Clutchy]

I would not call him a trusted mechanic if his saying to not run a thermostat how do you think the water cools down once its hot if its not staying in the radiator for long ????

 

[someguy360]

I would not call him a trusted mechanic if his saying to not run a thermostat how do you think the water cools down once its hot if its not staying in the radiator for long ????

I was thinking this too......I think the OP is making bad choices when it comes to mechanics.

As said above the radiator cap is the blow off point, so that could be faulty and causing excess pressure to release from other parts of the radiator (remember the caps do not get replaced with new radiators, they need to be purchased seperately so you could still be running your original cap and it could be a dud, I had a dud cap on my way to melbourne a couple of years ago, kept loosing pressure and almost overheating...stopped at a servo, whacked a new cap on drove another 4000km no worries)

 

[pendles]

just overhaul your cooling system. you would know if its a head gasket as it would go through shatloads of coolant
thermostat only restricts flow when it doesnt need cold fresh coolant.
by removing it, will only allow constant cold coolant flow.

 

[Gus The Snail]

has the thermostat been replaced every time you changed radiators?

 

[NeilB]

Pendles, I just pulled out a motor that had a blown head gasket, didnt use water didnt colour the water, no water in the oil but I can assure you that it flashed to hot very quickly and cooled down once you stopped with the car idling.

 

[Clutchy]

Pendles, I just pulled out a motor that had a blown head gasket, didnt use water didnt colour the water, no water in the oil but I can assure you that it flashed to hot very quickly and cooled down once you stopped with the car idling.

That's it they can go into a oil gallery or bore to bore no coolent loss.