Vauxhall leaking coolant.

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Fri 19 Dec 2003 11:07
Vauxhall leaking coolant. - elisa1
Yet again our vauxhall carlton! Had a new thermostat fitted last weekend and it has been leaking coolant externally since. I thought it was an airlock so I opened the expansion tank and ran the engine the coolant ran over, I sqeezed the pipes into and out of the radiator and it seemed ok for a day. Anyway its leaking coolant again, the temperature guage is running hotter than normal and the heaters are cold. I again tried to get rid of an airlock last night again the coolant in the bottle ran over but afterwards the heaters were working and the temperature guage was normal.
Is it that I didn't clear the entire airlock? Can airlocks be caused by something else? Or is there something wrong?
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 19 Dec 2003 13:46
Vauxhall leaking coolant. - Hawesy1982
This sounds VERY like the symptoms i had on my 306. Be careful because ignoring this will cause head gasket/head damage costing ££££'s.

Can you actually see where you are losing the coolant? On my car i couldn't, it turned out to be one of the hoses, and the effect was i was getting airlocks all the time in my 129000mile cooling system. As a result it eventually gave up and overheated on me - result being sell to a mate instead of possible £600+++ bill.

As i said in your previous thread, i now do tend to be a bit of a hypochondriac where cooling systems are concerned, but i would definitely get it fixed soon and not drive it unless absolutely necessary.

With a bit of luck someone will come along in a minute and provide you with a dead easy and cheap solution instead!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 19 Dec 2003 14:03
Vauxhall leaking coolant. - elisa1
It seems to be coming from around the radiator area. I didn't loose any coolant until I had this thermostat done! Is it possible that I didn't drain the airlock properly the first time?
I have put some radweld in incase it is the radiator but that doesn't explain the airlock.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 19 Dec 2003 14:19
Vauxhall leaking coolant. - Hawesy1982
To fix the airlock properly it may be the case that you need to use a header tank to ensure the filling level is always higher than the highest bleed point - this is the case on Citroens and Peugeots at least.

Have you got a Haynes manual for the car? That should give you the correct bleed process.

As your problem has just occured overnight and after a thermostat change i would suspect that you are correct about it being filled incorrectly. Check all your rad/heater hoses are sound too, though. Oh and that the hoses going into and out of the heater matrix are hot/warm respectively - standard check that one.

Theres loads of info here on these problems, try a forum search at the top right of the page
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 12 Jan 2004 01:31
Vauxhall leaking coolant. - mgk luton beds
look and see
why change themostat??
head gasket prob!!!air getting in to system water getting pushed out of expansion tank need to take head off and poss welding req and pressure test head!!
fbillytom@ntlworld.com
ex vaux tech
Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Looking for a garage you can trust? Honest John's Good Garage Guide has thousands of reader recommended garages, plus how-to guides and tips on servicing.

The Good Garage Guide

From which small car to buy at which price point to the best UK-built cars, our Top 10s have the lot. Click now for your shortlist.

Unsure of what to buy? Our Top 10s are here to help you....