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Boiling over! No water!

Ray De Man

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Hi guys, hope you can help?

Yesterday coming back from shopping my car displayed the dreaded "over heating" message! The dial was in the red and climing, so had to pull over on the side street but car then displayed Drivetrain warning and car started to cough like it was gonna die!

I turned it off once stopped to see if fan would cool it down but no... So turned it off, fans went off, opened bonnet to see steam venting from coolent overflow (yellow dipstick thingy) with this burpling noise. I braved opening cap after noise stopped to see howmuch water i got and none was seen. So I asked a friendly guy if I can get some water, so armed with 5 bottles of water I start pouring.... 5 liters or so went in WTF where did it go?

So I started car everything normal apart from drivetain symbol still showing. Nursed it back towards home and again it started to overheat but fan kicked in and kept the coolent temp between 106-119 C. Got home checked water after it cooled to find approx 3 liters had evapourated (no puddles or water marks) so filled it up and let it idle to see if any air trapped. Temp was fine staying midway on gauge, checked for leaks and nothing, so turned it off and left over night.

Started this morning everything fine, even the Drivetrain warning had gone, drove down the road 60 kph and fine got to a 80 kph stretch and it started again, pulled over let the fan cool it (which it did) to half way and drove back home. On idle it making this whiny/droney noise somewhere in engine bay + erupting coolant.

Weekly checks of topping up water since I bought the car last year, which was bare minimal amounts of water + the usual other checks, oil etc...

So can someone please tell me whats going on? I checked the other forum pages which I understand but where the hell is my water going? Is this bad news and gonna be expensive. I 've only had this car since late Aug 2010, do you think i'll be cover under warrentty?

Thanks for any help in advance guy n gals.
 

bogan_vk

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rip the thermostat out and drive it without a thermostat in it should be ok like that, then if it is just get a new thermostat and gasket a friends car was displaying the same symptoms until i ripped out the thermostat so he could drive it until he got a new one. your water is going out the overflow.
 

Ray De Man

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Thought it might be the thermo as bottom pipe not getting as hot as the top hose. How do you remove the thermo? Thought its a bitch to get to on the alloytecs as its positioned somewhere behind the engine. How much do you recon its gonna cost to call lube mobile to replace part or is it cost effective to source the part myself and grab some help?
 

VZ_commo91

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I was under the impression that if the bottem hose was cooler than the top, the thermostat was fine. ( as it goes through the radiator at good speed )
Because mine is noticeably cooler than the top hose, and I have no problems.
 

Ray De Man

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Thanks for your response.

So am I looking at a water pump issue or head gaskets or something else?
 

Ray De Man

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Ok just got an quote for a water pump including parts, labour and GST of $ 267.30 . To investigate thermo i'm looking at extra charges on top and per hour charges. Is this a good price guys?
 

heyitsEnricoPallazzo

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A reasonable price. Pump, coolant and labour.
Although changing the thermostat at the same time would be hedging your bets.
 

Ray De Man

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Yeah I might be best just to do both at the same time. Somehow I can see this doubling or even tripling in price.

But what worries me that the mechanic is gonna take me for a ride and say. This, this and this is faulty and needs replacing even if they were still in 100% working order. How can you tell or do you just trust them?
 

vsl67

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Any chance your overflow was dumping water constantly because it wasnt bled? and yes it will cause what you have descride also you could possibly have a leak in the heater core or a leak that only starts when things expand when hot and close up when cool I have seen them all before
 
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