EmperorBubba
New member
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2009
- Messages
- 2
- Points
- 1
Hello.
First, and foremost, I am a total newb when it comes to cars, so pardon me in advance for what will surely be a fine display of stupidity on my part.
I've got myself a 98 fiat Bravo, and i've been having some issues with it recently...
basically, i'm convinced i've got some sort of blockage in my water.
Now, the head gasket in this car has blown before, and at that time my water seemed to be blocked, because leading up to when the gasket blew, the water level looked fine, untill one day when starting the car up ( i'll be honest, I cannot remember if the following happened before or after the gasket blew, I would imagine afterwards ) I suddenly heard the very loud sloshing of water as it all got sucked through the system in one go, and sure enough when I looked in the water tank after this, the level had shot down dramatically.
fastforward to the present, I recently took a rather long trip ( from Cork in the south of Ireland, to Dublin, and back again, in one day ). The car was grand on the way up, grand on the way down, but upon dropping some friend's off home following our trip, when reversing out of thier house, the car started chugging and coughing. The next morning, starting it up, it was pretty chuggy again, and again, I could hear the sound of water flowing, although nothing on the scale as the previous time I described. We popped down to the shop and back, along the way the car was ok.
I checked the water when we got home in fear of another potential blockage and impending gasket blowage, but it was normal, though the water in the tank was boiling ( dunno if this is good or not :s ). I started it up again, and once again, water flowed a little. I revved the engine gently a few times, which seemed to cause more water sounds. Turned it off, checked the water level, and it had gone down, slightly. Turned the engine back on, did the same thing, checked the water again, and it had gone back up.
Over the past 3 days, the car has gotten worse and worse. When I started it up today it sounded like a dying elephant. It chugs intermittently when idling or in 1st gear, the little orange engine light will also intermittently switch between flashing on and off, or being totally on, or totally off. ( heres an example of my newbyness, I believe the orange engine light is the ECU, but correct me if i'm wrong )
I rang my mechanic and explained it to him, but all he kept saying was "Is there water in it?", to which I continually said "Yeah, it looks like there is..." and he'd cut me off before I could remind him "but it also looked like there was water in it the last time my gasket blew". ¬_¬
I was wondering if I might be waaaay of the mark, and it could be something else, like the oil, as someone advised me that a simple chug in the engine could be a symptom of low or no oil, though as far as I can tell on the dipstick, the oil is fine.
if anyone can shed some light on what might be wrong, and how I can go about remedying it, it will be much appreciated.
First, and foremost, I am a total newb when it comes to cars, so pardon me in advance for what will surely be a fine display of stupidity on my part.
I've got myself a 98 fiat Bravo, and i've been having some issues with it recently...
basically, i'm convinced i've got some sort of blockage in my water.
Now, the head gasket in this car has blown before, and at that time my water seemed to be blocked, because leading up to when the gasket blew, the water level looked fine, untill one day when starting the car up ( i'll be honest, I cannot remember if the following happened before or after the gasket blew, I would imagine afterwards ) I suddenly heard the very loud sloshing of water as it all got sucked through the system in one go, and sure enough when I looked in the water tank after this, the level had shot down dramatically.
fastforward to the present, I recently took a rather long trip ( from Cork in the south of Ireland, to Dublin, and back again, in one day ). The car was grand on the way up, grand on the way down, but upon dropping some friend's off home following our trip, when reversing out of thier house, the car started chugging and coughing. The next morning, starting it up, it was pretty chuggy again, and again, I could hear the sound of water flowing, although nothing on the scale as the previous time I described. We popped down to the shop and back, along the way the car was ok.
I checked the water when we got home in fear of another potential blockage and impending gasket blowage, but it was normal, though the water in the tank was boiling ( dunno if this is good or not :s ). I started it up again, and once again, water flowed a little. I revved the engine gently a few times, which seemed to cause more water sounds. Turned it off, checked the water level, and it had gone down, slightly. Turned the engine back on, did the same thing, checked the water again, and it had gone back up.
Over the past 3 days, the car has gotten worse and worse. When I started it up today it sounded like a dying elephant. It chugs intermittently when idling or in 1st gear, the little orange engine light will also intermittently switch between flashing on and off, or being totally on, or totally off. ( heres an example of my newbyness, I believe the orange engine light is the ECU, but correct me if i'm wrong )
I rang my mechanic and explained it to him, but all he kept saying was "Is there water in it?", to which I continually said "Yeah, it looks like there is..." and he'd cut me off before I could remind him "but it also looked like there was water in it the last time my gasket blew". ¬_¬
I was wondering if I might be waaaay of the mark, and it could be something else, like the oil, as someone advised me that a simple chug in the engine could be a symptom of low or no oil, though as far as I can tell on the dipstick, the oil is fine.
if anyone can shed some light on what might be wrong, and how I can go about remedying it, it will be much appreciated.
