vsthis
Member
So I was driving to work a couple of days ago and i noticed my factory dash temp guage was showing about 5mm higher than where it usually sits but i wrote it off as being stuck in traffic and didn't think much more about it. That was untill yesterday morning. I was driving home from work, it's about 8 degrees out side and i was in moderate city traffic, and my temp guage started slowly climbing. It kept going untill it sat about 5-6mm below the hot line and then it droped back down to just above normal and then it started rising again. I wasn't far from home so i kept going and it dropped again.
Once i got home i popped the bonnet and started having a look.
There was bugger all pressure in the top radiator hose, the overflow bottle was 3/4 full with a whole lot of grainy residue, and the water in the radiator was down by about 800mls. Also, the water wasn't it's usual nice green coolant color but rusty and crap. When i run the engine with the rad cap off and the heater going, the water doesn't bubble out at all. It did manage to build up some pressure in the rad top hose this time though. There doesn't seem to be any milky residue in the oil either.
I've got a couple of ideas what it may be.
? dodgy water pump
? Ruptured bank in the radiator
? Dodgy thermostat
? Head gasket
? Radiator cap
It could be any of these or a few of them. Anyone got any ideas or tests i can do to isolate the problem?
Once i got home i popped the bonnet and started having a look.
There was bugger all pressure in the top radiator hose, the overflow bottle was 3/4 full with a whole lot of grainy residue, and the water in the radiator was down by about 800mls. Also, the water wasn't it's usual nice green coolant color but rusty and crap. When i run the engine with the rad cap off and the heater going, the water doesn't bubble out at all. It did manage to build up some pressure in the rad top hose this time though. There doesn't seem to be any milky residue in the oil either.
I've got a couple of ideas what it may be.
? dodgy water pump
? Ruptured bank in the radiator
? Dodgy thermostat
? Head gasket
? Radiator cap
It could be any of these or a few of them. Anyone got any ideas or tests i can do to isolate the problem?