overheating problem

vivek · Post by **vivek** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:52 am

yesterday i had to stop on princess highway. reason- smoke starts coming out of my engine bay. the car was overheated like a bitch. i had not driven it even for 10 mins and this happened. So i stopped the car opened ma hood and saw that the coolant had spilled everywhere, on the battery on the engine. I had got the coolant changed only about 2 to 3 weeks ago.
The Cone bit of ma HKS filter had come off as well. Now what could have possibly gone wrong? Which mechanic should i go to to get it fixed. I'm in melbourne and i stay in clayton. Does lee do mechanical repairs. FTO338 i know you stay near chaddy. You must know of a good place.

Thanks peeps. Man my car is cursed.

devil2004 · Post by **devil2004** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:53 am

it sounds like you either got a leaking hose or your thermostat is gone. Any mechanic/service centre should be able to fix it for you cheaply.

Post by **dstocks** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:44 pm

I had a nasty thing happen a while back - overflow bottle got a blockage and caused a vacuum in the top radiator pipe. If this was bad enough it would cause overheating as it would stop water circulation (or at least restrict it).

vivek · Post by **vivek** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:53 pm

oh ya my overflow bottle looks nasty. its got brown stuff in it. i think that is it. how do i remove the blockage?

SchumieFan · Post by **SchumieFan** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:40 pm

just because the resevoir is full, doesnt mean the radiator is, check the radiator to see if there is water in it, the brown stuff is rust, youve cooked the radiator mate and brought it all up, youll need to flush the radiator, drive for a week and flush it again.... assuming you havnt blown your head gasket(s)

Oh god doesnt that sound familiar

Post by **dstocks** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:55 pm

Test it first, as Shumiefan said, this could be back flush from the radiator. If your overflow is blocked, you will not be able to blow air/water whatever through the pipe between the overflow bottle and the radiator filler.

So..... Take the radiator cap off and take to overflow cap off and see if you can blow air through the pipe. If you can, then this isnt the problem.

have I confused you yet..... I think I have confused myself.

bobz · Post by **bobz** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:13 pm

What did the temp guage say before you stopped due to the smoke coming from under the bonnet?

BobZ

vivek · Post by **vivek** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:01 am

the needle was close to the max point.

SchumieFan · Post by **SchumieFan** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:08 pm

yep, youve done exactly the same as me my friend, i hate to say it, your motor is fucked!

at worst youve done your head if not both, but more than likely youve just done your gasket.... the good thing is im going through all this now, your first step is to fill your radiator, turn the car on with the CAP OFF and see if any bubbles rise, if so, thats your head(or gasket) leaking...

congratulations

vivek · Post by **vivek** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:12 pm

omg i'm scared now. how expensive to get it all fixed?

SchumieFan · Post by **SchumieFan** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:39 pm

hmmm lets see...

all prices in $NZ

was looking at whole new engine... $1300 inc gst

but i bought,

new gasket set.... $392
new cam belt.... $192 (discounted)( dont need to replace this but i thought i might as well)
spark plugs.... $90 (again, dont need this, but again i got a discount)
tappet adjuster screws.... $35 x 4 (you wont need these if yours arent damaged.... but youd be lucky)
oh and gasket sealant... oil, antifreeze... assuming you do it yourself. i am and when i have a day off (wednesday) im gonna put it all back together... and I WILL TAKE PHOTOS cause im sick of people moaning about me not doing a guide.

of course if you dont have the tools, the 6ft pit in my dads garage or the know-how your gonna be paying about 16-18 hours x $60 - $80 an hour labour for a mechanic to do it... or you could set it up as a project for the club boys to help you with....

if your radiator does bubble like i said, it means you will be leaking water, ie, it will get worse, and you will blow white smoke (like how a formula one car blows when they blow their engines) you can patch this up and buy you a bit of time (maybe a month or 2) by going to you well equipt mechanic and buying a couple of blocks of radiator hole filler (its a carbon type substance, they make it in little blocks about an inch by 2cm squared and they cost about $7 each, you have to shave it and put it in your radiator, then go for a 10km drive to work it through your system. this will plug up you hole till you can get the time/money etc to fix it properly. i drove from tekapo to christchurch (3.5 hours) with no problems with my GPX like this. BUT when you pull the engine apart you have to remove it all and its a friggin pain in the arse....

hope this has helped.... but as i said, go pop your bonnet and take the radiator cap off, start the engine.... fill up the radiator so you can see the top of the waterline and look for bubbles.... you may be lucky and gotten away with it.... but i didnt....

GOOD LUCK

Storm · Post by **Storm** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:24 pm

Bubbles in the coolant just mean you have a leak, not necessarily that your head gasket has gone! If you want to be super sure get the car to a garae with a gas analyser and get them to put it over the filler hole and it will tell you if you have any exhaust gasses in there.

I though I had blown mine but it was the new heater matrix I'd fitted which was leaking. Last thing I expected it to be

HTH

Arashi

vivek · Post by **vivek** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 4:56 pm

hey people. lee came to ma house today to check what the problem was. He did exactly what storm suggested. He says its my hoses bit. he's fixin ma car n says it should be up and running by monday. Got to admit lee's a great guy . I've got a question though. Now that i am replacing my hoses are there any upgrades that i can do to it, like getting the silicon hoses n stuff.

???
thanks a lot again people for all the advice.

shue · Post by **shue** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 5:02 pm

u could get the samco ones for about 240$ a set

vivek · Post by **vivek** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 7:04 pm

where do i get these samco hoses from. contact persons name, number or website address please

Imperial · Post by **Imperial** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:27 am

Hey mate, the exact same thing was happening to me and just had it fixed today.

I thought it was gonna be worst than it was but when my mech had a close look at everything it was just my thermostat that was gone, he said its quite common in cars over 10years old.

Put a new one in and change my hose's, flushed everything and now its back to perfect. Cost my $110 including labour.

Post by **dstocks** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 2:49 pm

Heres some info and overseas supplier:

http://www.completefto.com.au/FTO_showcon ... 1&pid=2046

SchumieFan · Post by **SchumieFan** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 9:51 pm

yeah im gonna do mine while ive got it in pieces

vivek · Post by **vivek** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 5:31 pm

its the worst day ever. ya shumiefan was right. blew my head gasket. now what should i go. think i'll have to get a new motor

SchumieFan · Post by **SchumieFan** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 7:43 pm

vivek wrote:its the worst day ever. ya schumiefan was right. blew my head gasket. now what should i go. think i'll have to get a new motor

ohhhhhhhh im so printing that out!

um, nah if its just the gasket youd be wise just to fix that unless you want to UPGRADE your motor... ie 6A13TT.

um. you can do it yourself or pay someone if your not so confident, just remember that when you change the head gasket you have to change all the other gaskets as well, including the valve oil seals (im having lots of fun with that bit now! (NOT!))
all the gaskegts come as a set luckily

its really upto you, it would be quicker just to drop another motor in, but its still pretty time consuming (driveshafts etc) but why bother changing the motor if its only a gasket? of course that is assuming you havnt cracked your heads as well. fun hey?

how many k's has your fto done?

FTO AUSTRALIA

overheating problem

overheating problem

Another possibility

Just test it first

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