Hi guys. Just need a simple bit of help.

I had my Maera in for repairs (it needed a new shock absorber ball joint or something like that) while I was away on business this week. I was ment to collect it yesterday from the garage but was stuck at home due to the snow on the south coast. I got to work today and collected my car (the garage is just around the corner from where I work and I get a hire car for business trips). I left to head home today and around 1/3 of the way home I noticed the temp gauge was on 1/2 way and I had no heat out of the heater!

I realised I had:
1) No water
or
2) A frozen cooling system and it was only the -5c temp outside that was keeping my engine alive.

I got to a point I could safely stop and get off the motorway and called the breakdown. After an hour in -5c with no heating and only a coat and gloves to keep warm I called them again and was told it would be at least another hour before they got to me. As my engine was now cold and I was 10-15 mins from home I risked it and drove back canceling the breakdown as I was exceptionally cold.

I realised it was my fault, I had a leak in the rad a few months back which I sealed with rad-weld but obviously forgot to re-top up the antifreeze like a pillock. So hands up, I did it gov.

Anyhow got home and the car is outside. But how the hell do I unfreeze an engine with snow on the ground? I know it is supposed to rain tonight which may help and warm the air (and I hope my car) up. Once the engine is at least mostly defrosted I can risk running it again and get some antifreeze in it to stop this happening again (as well as pray I have not done any serious damage to the engine).

Any advice is appreciated as I need the car on Sunday to collect someone from Heathrow airport.

Max

you will struggle to get it defrosted outdoors
it needs a warm garage
but!
if it were me i thin i would be first checking if it did overheat and not just an electrical fault
TBH i think the only practical way is to pour neat antifreeze down whatever pipes you can
leave it for a day then try flushing it with as hot a water you can get
then try filling the cooling system and see what happens.if it works then obviously get the correct mix of antifreeze in there
how does that sound?


you could be lucky and its low on coolant and what was left froze
so neat antifreeze maybe able ot get through

custard said:

you will struggle to get it defrosted outdoors
it needs a warm garage
but!
if it were me i thin i would be first checking if it did overheat and not just an electrical fault
TBH i think the only practical way is to pour neat antifreeze down whatever pipes you can
leave it for a day then try flushing it with as hot a water you can get
then try filling the cooling system and see what happens.if it works then obviously get the correct mix of antifreeze in there
how does that sound?


you could be lucky and its low on coolant and what was left froze
so neat antifreeze maybe able ot get through

Click to expand...

My main issue is I MUST have the car available on Sunday morning, I have a garage but it is half full of junk and I cannot get the car in it to warm/protect it. I will check the exactly water level in the morning and can add whatever antifreeze I can to the expansion tank but much more I do not know. I will also give the pipes a squeeze and see if they compress as that will tell me if they are frozen.

When I stopped initially after getting to a safe place I opened the engine bay and you could smell the heat out of the bay as well as feel the engine was hot through running. I was not in the mood to test it with my hand or squeeze pipes at this point. I did initially wonder if it was just a frozen thermostat but I am not sure if that would cause this issue alone. I thought the car would operate correctly but I get no heat if the thermostat sticks from my memory.

My worst case is that I attempt to drive it a little tomorrow and if the issue reoccurs I call out the breakdown service and get them to look at it for me and advise what to do. That appears to be my only other option at this point that I can see short of emptying my garage contents onto the street and warming my car up in the empty area.

Max

I've had the exact same symptoms before. Engine wasn't frozen it was just an airlock near the heater matrix.

Venters said:

I've had the exact same symptoms before. Engine wasn't frozen it was just an airlock near the heater matrix.

Click to expand...

How do I check for this?

Max

Bleed the system. I'm not sure which engine you have but on the mk2 20V there are 3 bleed points 2 either side of the radiator and on the pipe that comes from the head and feeds round to the matrix.

If the temp gauge goes to halfway and stays there I would be tempted to think there is no issue with the cooling of the engine.

Venters said:

Bleed the system. I'm not sure which engine you have but on the mk2 20V there are 3 bleed points 2 either side of the radiator and on the pipe that comes from the head and feeds round to the matrix.

If the temp gauge goes to halfway and stays there I would be tempted to think there is no issue with the cooling of the engine.

Click to expand...

I have a 1.9TD (2001, 51 plate). The two radiator points, are these the two on the top of the rad one on either side or are they somewhere else?

I want to look out at the car around 8am and whatever I do I need to do fast and see what happens. I have to go out at 10am so will only have an hour or so to do something.

But at least this is something which is better than what I had.

Max

Yup both on top but at either side. But it's the one going round the back I'd be most interested in. Pretty sure you cant actually see it on mine and have to find it by feel.

Venters said:

Yup both on top but at either side. But it's the one going round the back I'd be most interested in. Pretty sure you cant actually see it on mine and have to find it by feel.

Click to expand...

Thank you. That at least helps give me a good idea of what I am looking at. I will take a look in the morning and see what I can find out and do.

Max