Technical Temp light coming up on dash. No heating.

[CharlieG]

Hi.

I have a new problem with the car .
I was casually driving around the town, when the car starts ideling real bad, like juddering, I was basically vibrating in my seat. I didn't have a clue what it is was so tried to ignore it till I got home.

Anyway later that night I went out for a quick cruise (about 30 mins) with my mates on the motorway, and the temp light came on, so I pulled over and gave the engine a rest. Then made my way to the closest tescos going about 50mph to be safe.

This was last night so it was dark, anyway I gathered I better check the fluid level in the radiator, and because the damn thing is yellow and it was dark I didnt have a clue where the level was at. So I ran in to tescos and grabbed some water, then filled about a litre up. so I could just see it though the spout.

So anyway, it got me home but still idled and built up speed like sh*t. And on the way back I noticed that the heating had stopped working. Which I guess is something to do with it!!?


So today I got the car out to the road, and checked the level, it had gone below min. So I topped it up to max with water. Then let it idle for a few mins and I know i've got a leak. I can't work out where but there are two drips, both coming from the joins in the exhaust. And it feels like the water I just put in.

Any ideas!! I'm getting real worried.

Thanks!!

 

[Punto_2008]

Do you hear the engine fan cut in at all? Also, i would say the cheapest thing to try first would be to fill the radiator up, and then pour a bottle of RadWeld in there to see if that seals up any of the holes that the water is leaking from. In my experience, that stuff is amazing for getting you out of a fix!

I had some trouble with my cooling system about 6 months ago, turned out that the insides of the motor on the fan had melted and fused together (i took it apart out of curiosity) but this was stopping the fan from working, which in turn wasn't cooling the engine down, so it got hotter and hotter till it overheated. Something i noticed when running the engine afterwards was that when it got just past the temperature that the fan would normally kick in at, it idled really roughly before eventually just dying. I assume that this is when it is heading towards the point of the engine siezing? Anyway, its still working now, turned out just to need a new fan and a coolant change.

When the light was coming on, were you stopping and starting in traffic, or travelling at speed?

 

[CharlieG]

Yeah mate, the fan comes on and sometimes doesn't go out for a long time. I'll look out for that stuff, cheers!

The light came on when I was travelling at speed!

 

[Mdeko]

Sounds like the head gasket has gone now. Initially it could of been just low on coolant but the poor running and excessive water out of the exhaust indicates a head gasket problem.

 

[CharlieG]

Just my luck. Thanks