Can anyone help please! I could hear water sloshing around in the passenger footwell of my Renault Megane (1.6, 4 yrs old). I could hear this for a few weeks, then I noticed that every time I pressed the accelerator the water seemed to churn, again in the passenger footwell & even if the car was stationary.
The engine started shuddering when I was stationary e.g. waiting at traffic lights, so I took it to a garage and was told that the head gasket needed replacing urgently & that the coolant was leaking. So I shelled out hundreds of pounds for the head gasket to be fixed, picked up the car tonight, and on the way home could hear the water as much as ever. When I opened the bonnet, I could see that the coolant reservoir had drops of water on the cap and sounded as if it was hissing/bubbling & it was still quite hot about half an hour after I'd parked at home. I've been told that the radiator cap could need replacing but can't find the radiator cap. There's no mention of the radiator in my manual so can't even find it to check if it's okay.
If anyone can help, I will be very grateful. It's very frustrating to be without my car for a week and pay out a fortune only to find there's still a problem.
Any explanations please in layman's terms!!
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Let us assume the passenger foot well is not full of water and id if you rock the car water is not sloshing about. Now the Header tank cap is the only cap and thus it is if you like you radiator cap. Are you loosing water from the header tank ???
I think you are hearing air in the cooling water going through the heat exchanger so either it is not filled properly or your head gasket replacement has not fixed the problem and one or more cylinders are leaking into a water way. Not Good Regards Peter
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Thank you! Think I will have to take the car back to the garage on Monday. Is it dangerous, do you think? I have an hour's drive to work everyday along motorway and don't want the car to over heat on me!
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Hi Steph,
Are you loosing water ?? Important
If the head gasket is leaking then the steam washing effect in the piston can blast a channel across the surface of the aluminium head and be very costly. But is it the head gasket that is leaking. Remove the header tank cap note cool or cold engine and start the car get a friend to rev the car just to 3000 rpm, are there air bubble rising in the header tank or is it bubbling and beltching try putting the palm of your hand over the top of the header tank to see if it is pressurising ?? If you are not mechanically minded find some help locally. Was the garage who changed the gasket a Renault dealer. doed the air in the header tank smell like exhaust fumes. Does it look like the head has been off i.e. nice new shinney gaskets here and there. ?? Regards Peter
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Does the car have aircon? Ours is a 1.6 4 years old with aircon and makes noises of running water as well - but its the coolant in the aircon pipes and has done it from new ......
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My 5 year old Megane also makes this noise sometimes - has always done it. You do need to take this further, follow the advice in the thread to ascertain if you're losing water and/or getting undue pressure in the header tank. Also check your oil filler cap and dipstick for "mayonaise". You should have some comeback against the garage. Either they have not rectified your problem correctly, or they are guilty of ripping you off for a job that didn't need doing. How much did it cost by the way?
Baz
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Thanks everyone. I took my car to a local garage and they said that there is air in the heating/cooling system that needs to be bled. I\'d assumed that it was all connected with the damaged head gasket and that once that was sorted, the sloshing noise would stop. One of the hoses is damaged, which is annoying because the garage that fixed it said they\'d checked all the hoses for splits etc (the work cost £320 by the way, Baz. The Renault garage wanted to charge me £650!). I\'ve checked the oil filler cap and it\'s clean.
I\'m going to take it back to the garage that did the original work but unfortunately they can\'t look at it until Tuesday and may well charge me for further work. I\'ll let you know how I get on.
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