Good Morning all, I have a Holden VT Commodore Calais with the standard 3.8L Ecotec. It has 190xxxkm on the clock and has done me well for quite some time now, however it has started to overheat, and when turning off the car hissing noise and water is pouring out. (please see attached pic). Can someone please tell me what the issue is? The car is getting on now and just trying to work out if it's worth replacing or just getting rid of the vehicle itself. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Looks to be your Heater tap mate. Its that plastic thing with 3 hoses attached to it and is a very common thing to deteriorate and start leaking and it looks like the hose has broken off at the bottom in that pic. I brought one for about $45 from supercheap a few months back and it's easy to replace
Also, you might want to put some good quality coolant in there to avoid any more damage if it is not too late already. Using plain water is asking for trouble. Coolant prevents rusting.
You two are absolute champions. Just ordered the part off supercheap then, $28.99. Will fit this weekend. Thanks again for the help fellas.
Yeh its def rooted m8, i had mine replaced not long ago when i done my heater core...im pretty sure you can bypass it altogether seen as its getting warmer n not worry about a heater,you disconnect the hose from your water pump and the one above and run it into that bypassing the tap which will get ya sorted till then
Cheers mate might do that until I get the part in. Just out of curiosity, how is the leaking of that water making the car overheat? I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to all this
when was the last time u flushed the sytem n changed ya thermo,the leaking water wont necessarily be overheating ya engine its more so the thermo or shes pretty blocked id say? what id do is completely flush the system out and bypass the tap,change your thermo and top up n see how that goes..if ya still overheating id get it pressure tested and go from there m8
Yeah mate, this happend to me, seems pretty renown issue.. umm, you can bypass that tap if youre in dire straights useing the hoses there but get a new tap do a full flush / new good grade coolant and youll be back in bizzo
The water circulating through the system keeps the car cool. If there's not enough water, it cant cool the engine properly and it overheats. Thats what happened to my missus car when her heater tap gave up on life and started leaking. I put 4L of coolant in her VT when I was trying to find where the leak was coming from so no wonder it was overheating. If you replace this yourself make sure you bleed the coolant. If you don't know how to, do a search and find out its pretty simple stuff but a lot of people just fill up the radiator without getting the air out and wonder why it still overheats
o and what monkey said MAKE sure you bleed the system m8 theres 3 bleed points..very important after a change!!
bunch of bloody legends. Really appreciate the help fellas. Will make sure I bleed it out this weekend, and the part should arrive by the end of the week thanks again gents.
Only one bleed point for the ecotec on the thermostat housing. Only the supercharged 6 has 3 bleed points
woops thats right sorry m8,was thinking of mine lolol cant go driving him nuts trying to find the rest now can we,or can we
