Faulty Tridon thermostats

[wrx884]

You will not get vacuum in the system. The cap has a small one-way valve in the middle so when the system cools and starts to create vacuum, the valve opens allowing coolant to enter from the reservoir bottle. Otherwise your radiator would implode.

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Well thats wat happend and a few members on here said so 2, its somthing 2 do with the seals on the caps not doin their jobs (prolly exactly wat ur explaining now) but as soon as i replaced the cap 2 a genuine 1 i had pressure back in my top hose and i didnt get that squashed hose look wen cold.

 

[azzfox]

Hmm k. Yeah the hoses shouldnt be squashed when cold lol. Did you make sure it was a coolant recovery cap? Will have it written on the cap, and can be easily identified by the valve in the middle. It could be possible that you bought a cap of the correct pressure rating but with no recovery feature. If not, you can test the valve by simply pulling on it, it should be lightly spring loaded.

 

[rob drag racer]

at least your rad cap didn't let go all together i ended up with 3rd degree burns wile i was working on my old vp race car and the cap let go and dumped the hole cooling system on me and to boot the thermos didn't kick in so it was relay hot all i can say is when you take your shirt off and you peel several layers of skin with it it relay hurts

 

[wrx884]

Hmm k. Yeah the hoses shouldnt be squashed when cold lol. Did you make sure it was a coolant recovery cap? Will have it written on the cap, and can be easily identified by the valve in the middle. It could be possible that you bought a cap of the correct pressure rating but with no recovery feature. If not, you can test the valve by simply pulling on it, it should be lightly spring loaded.

Thats possible the repco guy gave me the wrong type but i just had a look at the cap its spring loaded and in the middle of the larger seal it has a smaller 1 that moves and has an opening under it so i assume thats the release valve??

 

[azzfox]

Sounds about right. Odd that it failed. Not a very complex device . My cheapie cap from supercheap hasnt failed yet. What brand was yours?

 

[centy]

1. Do you have water or coolant in the radiator?
2. Have you used a cleaner to flush the system?
3. Are ALL the hoses and clamps new?
4. Did you use sealant on the top hose when fitting it?
5. Do you lean on the fan shroud when working on the engine?
Answers shoud be
1 coolant
2 yes
3 yes
4 yes
5 HELL NO

the reason for these answers pretty blood obvious except for the last one.
5 if you lean on the fan shroud the extra stress can cause the tanks to get a fine crack near the mounts.
A real pain in the arse and hard to find, mine didn't leak till it was hot and then only a very fine spray.

 

[rob drag racer]

my cap was a proper holden cap

 

[azzfox]

my cap was a proper holden cap

*sings* Irony...

Missed that post. All I can say is ouch!

 

[rob drag racer]

it happens i killed that car not long after that and i must say i enjoyed it lol

 

[levymetal]

the strangest thing happened to me yesterday, i didn't have a leak for 2 weeks now, so i was pretty happy with that. decided to check the coolant levels just to see what was going on, and in the overflow the tube was still in the water but it was pretty low. so i decided to top it up. drove to work, then when i had finished work there was a massive puddle of coolant leaking directly from the radiator. drove home, woke up today and yet another massive puddle of coolant (same spot). it doesn't make sense to me what the level of coolant inside the overflow has to do with my car leaking (unless of course it's harder to push the coolant into the overflow if it's got a higher level, nothing the system shouldn't be able to handle), but there is not a chance in hell that this is a coincidence... now that the level inside the overflow is dropping again, i am going to see what happens with the leak. i bet it is going to stop again once the level gets lowish. maybe i'll just leave it and monitor it, as long as that tube is in the water then it's ok i guess.