FTO AUSTRALIA

Was driving the car tonight and after stopping in a supermarket carpark noticed smoke coming from underneath the engine, stopped her immediately after I saw the gauge going past halfway.

I let it cool and tried again, it wasn't leaking terribly hard and babied it for about 3 km before the gauge went past 90 again so I immediately pulled over. Called the NRMA after determining its a heat issue, and after checking the radiator cap was almost dry, so tried adding more water and it goes straight through, towards the back of the engine bay.

Anyone know whats happened here? I think a hose or seal has come off but I'm very scared its something bigger. Shes safely locked up in a mechanics garage and will see whats the go on Monday. Anyone had any experiences like this?

wait til she's cold, open radiator cap & top up with coolant if its low.. pop the cap back on & give all the hoses upper & lower a good hard squeeze.. if you see any leaks, replace the hoses or check that they're clamped up nice & tight..

check the hoses that are attached to the reservoir tank as well. if I read it right, you're saying it goes straight through towards the rear of the engine bay.. seems like the reservoir hose which is attached to the rear of the radiator cap filler point might've come off?

Check the drainage plug on the radiator is screwed in all the way & isn't loose as well etc etc..

Well that sounds like it, when you pour in liquid it goes out the back underneath the air intake pipe, so it sounds like the reservoir pipe.

DUDE!

stop!

youve blown the heaterhose, it'll probably be split on the underside and you wont notice it untill you take it off.

it will hold till you put it under pressure.... ie, when your accelerating

this is what kicked off ALL my problems.... and if you dont know them, search my posts.

my car had done 160XXX k's
95 GPX

Check both the hoses running off these connectors,


take the hoses off and inspect both hoses for cracks on the inside, should be easy,, just hose clips.

if these are ok,

be worried

where do you find the heater hose?

radiator pipes...taken them off and have a look...shown in the pick. 5min.

I pulled her over as soon as it got warm Schumi, engine didn't sound any different, power was the same, everything normal. It still had coolant when i shut her down and had the NRMA take it to my garage, I didn't run the poor thing whilst hot.

I have a really really good mechanic fortunately and I'm sure he'll find the problem almost immediately. (hes the cheapest mechanic I've ever found, and he previously worked with a Porsche racing team in Germany. He did 3 days of work and parts for $120. He loves the FTO because its something different, usually he works on Falcons and Commodores 24/7 so when he gets something interesting its a good thing )

I'm 99% sure the car is absolutely fine, and I'll have it back when hes had the chance to look at it. I'm at about 130,000+ km at the moment.

mate if he did 3 days work for 120 bucks then thats 36 hrs / 120 ...you do the math...so in reality he kept your car for 3 days and did 1 hrs work with parts.

as for the coolant...if its leaking find out where from? There are a number of hoses connected to the junction where the thermostat is, one of them runs down the back of the car and i have seen at least 2 people with a split hose...it will only leak when it gets hot and with some pressure.

pretty simple...or wait and let someone find it in 5min and charge you another 200. Up to you.

khunjeng wrote: as for the coolant...if its leaking find out where from? There are a number of hoses connected to the junction where the thermostat is, one of them runs down the back of the car and i have seen at least 2 people with a split hose...it will only leak when it gets hot and with some pressure.

Bingo!

SchumieFan wrote:

khunjeng wrote: as for the coolant...if its leaking find out where from? There are a number of hoses connected to the junction where the thermostat is, one of them runs down the back of the car and i have seen at least 2 people with a split hose...it will only leak when it gets hot and with some pressure.

Bingo!

I had a similar prob, a small leak over time emptied the radiator Via the water pump which was stuffed

It was the heater hose, I got back home today after a holiday. $96 and shes back on the road.

HAHAHAHAHA

your welcome!

Mike.

i bought a new waterpump when i bought the second hand motor

BTW

this should be noted and added to the list of things that get replaced at the 100 thou k service, or at least id get it done by 120thou