Cooling System Problem

[paulb2004uk]

Hello,
Sorry for the long post but thought I'd better give a bit of history

Car - 2001 2.0 Hdi (90) Estate
Prob - Took car for MOT - Passed with no advisories, I the way home I noticed steam coming from the under the bonnet. When I checked
I saw it was coming from the header tank, the cooling fan was on but the rad is stone cold, also top and bottom hoses both rock solid.

Took the car to garage, they pressure and and sniff tested and all was ok. Check the thermostat and found it
wasn't opening. They replaced the thermostat and refilled the system with antifreeze. Called me and said all ok now.
Collected the car, when I used it in the evening I found it still steams from the cap and the fan still run while the rad is cold top to bottom
but now the hoses aren't solid.

The car runs up to temp ok - sits at 90C on the gauge, I get warm/ hot air in the car.

Can anyone give any advise what to check next ??

Thanks
Paul

[lozz]

Hi.
have you tried replacing expansion cap?
there cheap'ish so its a cheap gamble to try.

[paulb2004uk]

Sorted, garage didn't bleed the system properly... I Hope, will keep a close eye on it for a few days.

[dirtydirtydiesel]

Don't think that just because you've had a sniff test done that all is well ,
Check out scotty's post's on his C5, like lozz say's the cap's a common fail point & if it's not holding pressure then you'll get all sort's of problems
But the garage should have pressure tested the system before they told you all was well
It could be a blocked rad ( top & bottom hose off & run a hose pipe through it ) & it could be that you egr valve is leaking into the cooling system giving the
same problems as a head gasket fail.

Top tip look after your cooling systems people . Hope this helps DDD.

[scotty73]

Don't think that just because you've had a sniff test done that all is well ,
Check out scotty's post's on his C5,

I've bit the bullet and gone down the head gasket road... BUT... I was warned that it could end up being a cracked head so to avoid the expense of a head skim and finding out the head is fecked I've picked up a recon head.. All skimmed and pressure tested for little more than the price of a skim.. £120.

If it's not that I've ordered 2lbs of Semtex.