Technical Radiator bubbling

[pernicitus]

This story starts back about a month or so ago!

Got myself a nice 2001 Marea 1.6 Sx. At the start, it drove nice with no problems. About a week after I got it, I was driving home from work, got stuck in traffic and so wasn't looking at the speedo or any of the guages.

The first thing that made me aware of the overheating was the steam comming out from under the bonnet. Anyway, that ended up being a head gasket change and a new timing belt.

Got the car back about two weeks now and again no problems. I never did figure out what caused the car to overheat the first time, but as it was running fine again, I forgot about it. I did a long 4-5 hour drive yesterday with no problems at all. Just driving the car to work this morning, hadent gotten 2 mins into my drive and the temperature guage was riseing sharply, not quite into the red but it was wierdly irratic. What I mean by that is sometimes it would be OK temp then it would jump right up, below red and then drop down again. Pulled the car over, the fan is running and there is a bubbling noise from the Rad.

With the engine off, I check the Radiator and can visiblly see a small amount of water bubbling out of the side of the rad.

So I'm thinking partial hole in the Radiator:

1. Might this be fixable with radblock, or some other Radiator sealer.
2. Could there be an airlock in the rad?
3. If so, er.. How do I bleed it?

Any other Ideas as to why the car would be running fine one day, overheating the next, two weeks later fine and a few days later its in the red again??

Cheers guy
Pernic

 

[pernicitus]

Oh yeh, Why would the temp guage be reading OK, then hi, then higher, then OK, then high again?

Any ideas?
:bang:

 

[Venters]

The dials in the Marea can be a little "funny".
My petrol gauge for instance decides how much petrol I have on the force I use to hit the top of the dash.

can't help with the rad questions though.

 

[imthejoker]

Hello this might sound a bit silly but have you thought abot putting some red-flush stuff in the water and leaving it there to do its job , it could be just a blockage somewhere that the flush might cure,best to spend 3quid on that first than hundreds on a mechanic/new rad.
have you ran the car when its stationary til it does this and visually checked it for anything odd, does it have any air in the system , is the thermostat working properly , good luck.
Joker

 

[pernicitus]

LOL That’s good to know beast (actually it might explain some weird dash nuances that bothered me in the past)

I am going to have a look at the thermostat tomorrow and I think I will try that flush stuff also, if I can get to the local car fixits.
Cheers guys
Will report back with news.
Pernic

 

[pernicitus]

OK got a mate to help me today and he had a look at the car.
We didn't get to check the thermostat as I had intended.

From starting cold, he took off the rad refill cap and I started the engine. straight away the water level started to rise in the tank and began to overflow out of the rad!

He said that there is preasure getting into the rad from somewhere, most likely head gasket, when I told him it was just done (for the second time) two weeks ago, he told me to take the car back to the place, so thats for tomorrow!

What a bloody Nightmare! Its been none stop for the past 5-6 weeks, there has always been something wrong with the car!

I have to get time off work tomorrow and go in, in the morning to see the garage about the headgasket AGAIN! It could be worse, it could be a crack in a head or a piston, jeeezzz

Will know more after the weekend

Thanks for the replys guys
Pernic
checked the car today.

 

[EI4GGB]

did they inspect the head for cracks or pressure test it ?. A repeat performance would indicate they didn't

 

[pernicitus]

Droped the car in yesterday, and they told me they would have a look at it. Rang me later on Friday and said that the rad was leaking and this was causing air to get in and airlocked the system!

Rad is being sent away to be checked and reconditioned. Will know on Monday if it can be fixed or not.If thats the only problem with it, then I'll be happy, but it all sounds too good to be true!

I hope its just that and that when I get it back all will be OK. Ive had the car 6 weeks now and I havn't had a full trouble free week! Timeing belts slipping, valves getting bent, head gaskets getting replaced, over heating, heads getting skimmed. The list is endless! A serious run of bad luck!

Ahh don't mind me! I'm just pissed off with the whole situation and the fact that I don't have a clue about cars!

Will report on monday how the whole thing went!
Pernic

 

[pernicitus]

Got the car back yesterday, with a new rad and as of yet no probs!

Hope this is the last of my problems for a while

Thanks all for all the help!
Pernic