My car spewed up some coolant

Post by **Welly** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 4:42 pm

I probably over-filled the header tank recently (and for no good reason because the water never moves) but after a good run on Friday night at our local [s]race track [/s]by pass I found on Saturday morning it had coughed up some coolant from the pressurised cap (about half a cup full).

The question is...Just where is the FULL LINE on these bottles? there is a sort of plastic cup thing inside when you take the cap off but do you fill up to the bottom of the cup or half or what?

I was a bit surprised it spewed it and I was a bit worried the system pressure must have gone really high (hope it's not damaged the heater matrix?)

You obviously need a good air gap above the water line here to stop this over-pressurising.

Welly.

jameslxdt · Post by **jameslxdt** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 4:45 pm

theres a valve in the expansion tank cap to prevent system pressure going to high

darrenwall · Post by **darrenwall** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 4:46 pm

i fill mine upto the bottom of the plastic "cup " cos u need a bit of room for the water to expand when its hot which only happens about the 90 degree mark ( so i was told ) thats probably why it happened when you was racing up your local test track

darrenwall · Post by **darrenwall** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 4:47 pm

jameslxdt wrote:theres a valve in the expansion tank cap to prevent system pressure going to high

i think that the valve is set at around 1 bar to stop the pipes blowing off

Post by **Welly** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 4:53 pm

Cheers for that, hopefull no damage done then.

The stupid manual should say where the level is supposed to be

mjb · Post by **mjb** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:57 pm

I just over-fill mine cos it's dark in the mornings when I do it so I can't see how much water I'm sploshing down there

Thankfully(!!!) mine has a built-in pressure release mechanism at the bottom of the radiator. It's the
High-pressure Opening Liquid Egress system...

Post by **Welly** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:43 am

You nutter.

M, I thought it was pretty cheap to replace the rad on yours? I'm sure michealjclark did his a while back on here?????

Edit* here's the thread about it viewtopic.php?t=1428&start=15&postdays= ... highlight=

Blue406 · Post by **Blue406** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:58 am

Welton wrote:Cheers for that, hopefull no damage done then.

The stupid manual should say where the level is supposed to be

It does! At least on the D8 petrol where there are two little "steps / Shelves" inside the filler for the coolant and the level should be between the lower step and the upper.

mjb · Post by **mjb** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:53 am

Welton wrote: You nutter.

M, I thought it was pretty cheap to replace the rad on yours? I'm sure michealjclark did his a while back on here?????

Yeah I've looked at it - I can get one off ebay for about £70 which really shouldn't be a problem to replace myself providing I can find a day when I'm not driving it ;) I can live with the Liquid Egress Aggregation Kit though - I need to find the money to get the cambelt changed first! (I really need a new job!)

Still toying with the idea of using rad-weld though, but it really does put shivers up my spine to think there's the slightest possibility it could block the heater matrix or worse the coolant channels in the engine

Post by **Welly** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:27 am

I think if it was me I would fix the rad first, you've seen the cambelt and thought it looked in fairly good condition for now.

In the summer the coolant pressure will be slightly higher, for longer, and I would hate for the rad to 'let go' on the motorway for instance.

If that happened you could cook the engine which would be just as bad as the cam belt snapping anyway