so a couple of weeks back my ride blew the hose from waterpump to the inlet manifold on the freeway. i was right at an exit when the overheat lite came on, and managed to get off right away. i filled the radiator back up which was nearly dry, put the hose back on, and since then i've tried to bleed it a couple of times by doing this: run car for a bit with no radiator cap on to see if i can add more coolant, but the level stays up really high, how long should i wait?? filled overflow bottle, when car is warm half opened radiator cap with a towel cos i read this forces air and bubbles from the overflow lines. done the whole bleed screw thing stacks, got bubbles of steam and water. the car's never run hot usually aroud 1/8 of the way, but lately it's been throwing the overheat light and getting up to about 1/2 way in traffic. just now when it happened i killed it and opened the bonnet to see if it could bleed more air and i could hear a slight hissing from round the driver side fuel rail/inlet manifold, so don't know if this could be just fuel lines, or what. also no oil in water, no water in oil.
blowing white smoke at all? even just when booting it? (get a mate to follow u and watch), could be a gasket or cracked head (exhaust gas in ur cooling system)
replace the sensor first. when a engine has been over heated the sensors tend to fail and read wrong.
run car for a bit with no radiator cap on to see if i can add more coolant, but the level stays up really high, how long should i wait?? The water will rise until the thermostat has opened leave the cap on and drive it round the block with the overflow filled up. Leave it cool down then it should be bled out and filled up any excess with go out the overflow pipe. Also air in the cooling system will cause the boiling point to drop, probably causing the warning light to come on.
nah, got the missus to rev it, no white smoke. this is the one that's in the front of the inlet manifold and pretty much beneath the alternator, right? should i leave it running with the cap off first until the thermostat opens? bleed valve open or shut when/if i do?
no put the cap on with it filled up and overflow bottle filled up then take it for a drive, the pressure will force air pockets out through the overflow and any unneeded coolant will go out the pipe.
any word on whether this is the coolant temp sensor or the temp gauge sender? figured it'd be the first, but i'm gonna go to the repco sale tommorow, and gear up to do a do a coolant flush, it's running mostly water atm, so i want to get it all right first shot, swap the sensor over when it's dry.
