Hi all, Just a question about my boyfriends VS. It has had a few issues since he bought it, but he can no longer drive it for more than 1km without smoke pouring out of the hood. A while back the temperature gauge kept indicating that the car was overheating, but there were no other issues that we knew of. Coolant was always full and he and his mates put a new radiator in. That worked fine for a while, but it after a longer drive (1hr) he would notice smoke/steam coming out of the hood, then he could barely drive down the road before it happened. Any ideas on what this could be? We don't really want to spend much on fixing it when it isn't worth much anymore.
Just a guess id say its done a head gasket but if its steam maybe they need to bleed the cooling system as it could have a air lock in it.
Sounds like the car is infact over heating. Is there steam coming from the exhaust? If som I would check for: Blown head gasket Cracked head. If not, I would check for: Stuck thermostat. Dead water pump. Also, specifically where is the steam coming from? Do we know this detail? Is the car running fine as such? Any evidence of a collant leak? Heater taps?
Smoke and steam are completely different. If you're getting steam then you should be noticing a coolant loss. Look for leaking hoses - radiator hoses, heater hoses as well as the things that others have suggested. If you're getting smoke you need to look for oil leaks onto hot surfaces, like from the rocker covers onto the exhaust manifold. Going by the volume on your post, if you lifted the bonnet when the problem was happening you should be able to see where it's coming from.
