Roch

Hi All,

Newbie to this forum. I posted recently about a power steering leak, which I managed to get fixed thanks.

Another issue!

Arrived at my friends house this evening, after driving for about 30 mins, going about 60-70 mph on the motorway, everything going well. Stopped the car in front of his house, had to do a 3-point turn to change the direction the car was facing to drive into the underground carpark. Anyway on point 2 of the turn I noticed the temperature gauge went up to the second mark and the engine fan was constantly on, it wasn't turning off after 20 or secs. So I parked downstairs and noticed there was a trail of fluid coming out of the car, and a small pool under the engine. It appears to have leaked near the front left wheel, near enough to the coolant tank. The fluid is clear and has no smell, looks pretty much like water.

So I went inside for a while, came back out when the engine had cooled down and started it up. I moved the car to another spot in the carpark, and there's no fluid trail. I let the engine run for a few mins and the temperature gauge started rising, the fan came on when it hit the second bar, constant on, but didn't appear to be reducing the temperature. So I've left the car there for the moment.

I had no problems with overheating or fluid leaks before this, apart from the PS. Any ideas??


1990 944 T 94k miles

Eyal 951

sounds like its the thermostat. Replace it.

Roch

Good god that was a quick reply Will do. I guess that would explain the coolant overflow as the temperature rises? Cheers.

ehall

Check that, but also check the overflow tank. They are used for just that. Once they cool, they will hold fluid again, but when hot and full, they will ****. They are susceptable to pinhole leaks. Also, go through and check the hoses on that side. Dry everything off, then get it up to temp, and look for the leak. You might also get a Stant pressure tester, (mine was about 45 bucks on ebay) and pump up the system to about 10 psi. You'll find everything that is leaking. Once you find the leak, you may want to bleed the system. go to www.clarks-garage.com, and you will find a shop manual detailing how to bleed the system. This shouldn't be too hard. Let us know how it goes.

Roch

Will do guys. I'm astonished by the quick replies and instant help

Many thanks.

cpt_koolbeenz

It is necessary to do a bit more troubleshooting! Your problems could be caused by many things... faulty coolant cap, headgasket failure, cracked coolant tank, leaky hoses, etc.

I wouldn't just go replacing your thermostat at this point...

Before you continue, you need to top off your coolant and bleed the system. Once coolant leaks out of the system, you can develop air pockets=no good.

How much coolant do you think you lost? If it is a significant amount, I wouldn't advise driving your car anywhere.

First of all, the overflow tube connects to the coolant tank and drains out directly underneath the coolant tank. You need to determine if that is the source of the leaking water, or if it is coming from somewhere else.

Like ehall said, you should be able to borrow a coolant pressure tester from your autoparts store. That way you can see where it is leaking.

After you put more coolant in and properly bleed the system check the following:
When the car is hot, is your coolant boiling? Are there any visible bubbles in the coolant tank? Do you hear any boiling? If you can't tell with the engine running, get it up to temp then shut off the engine and listen for boiling sounds.

kos_007

There is a number of possible causes of overheating but but I would start with replacing the overflow tank cap first. It may sound funny, but let me explain why.
1.The leak -from your description- comes from the coolant tank overflow hose which is tacked out of site in the area of the LF wheel well.
2.If the coolant tank cap does not provide good seal, then the whole system is not pressurized and what happens next is that when the engine RPMs drop to idle, the flow of the coolant slows and hot spots in the engine cause localized boiling and creation of water vapour pockets which cause 2 things: a - overheating due vapour lock and, b - leakage of the coolant which is displaced by the pockets of gas.No problems on the highway and coolant leakage after arriving point in this direction.Well I would at least replace it with a generic cap ($3-5) before deciding to change the head gasket...Let us know what developes.

Roch

Thanks for the help so far. Well ... checked the oil reservoir and yep the oil cap is milky and the top of the reservoir has a milky residue around it. Taking into account the coolant leak and running hot problems it looks to be pointing towards a head gasket problem?

Eyal 951

do a compression test first. I was in your exact shoes a couple years ago. what happened in hindsite was the thermostat went, over heating the car a bit, causing the oil cooler seals to go and mixing coolant into the oil. I thought it was HG too, but it wasn't. It was just a bad thermo that took out oil cooler seals with it.
Eyal

Roch

Well managed to bleed the system, using the procedures on this site and some from clarks garage. Filled it back up with proper coolant and no more overheating problems since. I'm half thinking the guy who had the car before me didn't have proper coolant in the system, my fault for not checking/asking in the first place.

Thanks for all the help.