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[DTWD]

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Double Arse! I was sitting in the car park (in my car) waiting for the windows to clear. When I decided to give my (hopefully) future girl friend a ring. But before I get the chance the phone rings, its my best mate and he is up from uni today and going back this evening. He is near and decides to pop into the car park to meet me. So while I wait for him I leave the engine running and ring my (hopefully) future girl friend. Anyway I chat to her for about 10 mins and I see this Mini being raced up the road towards me. He is here, so I politely say goodbye to my (hopefullly) future girlfriend and say hello to my best mate. After several how are you words from each other (not spoken in about 2 months, I know, some best mate!) anyway I was admiring his new wheels on his Mini when we heared this hissing from my car. We joked about it being the tires deflating, then we took another look. There was a massive plume of steam starting to rise from under the bonnet. sh*t! I dive into the cockpit (what else can you call it...cab I suppose) anyway I look at the dash and see the little red light illumiated and the temp gauge maxed out. So I switched the engine off and pop the bonnet. After sever coughing fits and lungs now full of steam I surveyed the damage. Couldnt see jack sh*t so I got my little torch out, still coulndt see jack, so I just decided to fill it up with water (from work) and slowly drive home. It took about 3 litres of water before it got close to be near the max line. I started the car and the temp gauge shot up to the normal operating temp range (quicker than usual, but then again it had just been boiling) and it stayed there for the entire journey. There was loads of water on the car park but it didnt seem to be leaking when I filled it back up. It also wasnt leaking when I got home, but it was dark and I couldnt see properly. So I went into the house and had my dinner. Told my dad he was taking me to work tommorow and then had to tell him everything I am telling you here. But the funny thing that I did notice was that the fan didnt come on. I would have heared it and it would still have been on when I switched off the engine (wouldnt it?) but it wasnt. Just seems a bit strange. The car ran fine on the way back. I dont know what happend, but it looks like I will have to wait till wednesday to get a proper look. I am at work tommorow and it will be about 1700 when I get home and its gonna be 1730 when I finnish on monday and tuesday. So wednesday I can have a good look. Not that I have the smallest idea of what I am looking for. Well it looks like I will be saving on petrol money.



Paul

 

[lofty]

probably just sprung a leak under pressure from one of the clips securing the hoses, renault use these horrible clips that cant be adjusted, find the offending one and provided the hose is OK replace it with a jubilee, but.... and this is a big but....... never ever pour cold water inwhen its red hot and youve lost most of your water, wait for it to cool or the sudden change in temp can caus the head to crack, also cheak why the fan didnt come on

 

[16v jon]

Ive had the same thing happen to me . It was a core plug burst . Pain in the @rse cause I had to take the rad out to fix it . There aint a lot of room in a valvers engine bay to fix anything.You are probably ok with a 1 4 there is a bit more room . If it is a hose its only a 5 min job . Get it up to temp and see where the steam is coming from . Good look . If you are in the midlands and u r stuck pm me and i will give u a hand .

 

[DTWD]

Thanks fellas. I did let it cool down mainly cos it was a long walk to get the water so it was ok when putting it in. Thanks for the tips. I might see if I can see anything with a load of torches tonight, pissing me off having to be passenger, and its only been 1 day!



Paul

 

[maciek]

i had similar experience a week ago
I got back from carwash. went home and after 30-45 minutes went back down to see steam coming from under the bonnet. - "No it cant be the water from carwash - it must have dryied already..."
So with shaking hands I opened the bonnet, and coolant was spitted everywhere and under the car, with no visible leak.

after some heavy investigation it came out that a coolant hose which is under ("in") the intake manifold simply said - no more... and threw up...
its been hard work fixing it

You should check the fan switch and the fan itself either...

 

[maciek]

if too much water/coolant came out, the fan switch temp sensor maybe just didnt get proper temp anyway... - that can be the reason for the fan not coming on - but check it

 

[Barryd]

My money is on your rad fan switch is shot. Thats why it overheated at standstill and was ok while driving. The steam would have been from the boiling water and blowing out of the water bottles cap.

Get a new thermostatic switch and replace. Or could just be the wires come loose, but you can check be removing them from the fan switch and touching them together, if the fan comes on then the switch has gone.

 

[James20VT]

barry! u been getting me mail?

 

[DTWD]

Cheers fellas, and thanks for the offer 16v John, I will get back to you if it all goes a bit wrong on wednesday.

When I got back from work today I checked the water and it had gone down a bit. So I topped it up, started the car and stared at the temp gauge, it did what it does normally, and after a few mins (normal time) the fan did kick in. So I think thats fine. Barryd the steam seemed to be comming from around the drivers side front shock area. Couldnt see exactly where, but it was definatly not from the water cap, wrong side for a starter. But Thanks for the suggestion anyway. I wont know any better really till I can get my hands dirty on wednesday. At least I am keeping my fuel bill down and keeping it clean (washed the car on sat afternoon) so there is always a flip side to these situations.



Paul

 

[MaLicE]

i had a similar problem



when i had my clifford 300 fitted the dick head that installed it pulled the bottle off the bottle holder contraption(cant think of propper word) and dislodged the pipe that goes from the bottle to the pump and water was slowly leaking out and air got in to the pipes and made an air lock and i came out of a junction put the power on and looked out my back window to make sure a car wasnt about to hit me and i couldnt see all i could see was what i thought was smoke.



pulled over and went looking for a mechanic cos i didnt know ne thing about cars and my m8 with me was laffing saying ha ha u blown it up (he aint my m8 ne more) found a mechanic who said oh m8 u blown head gasket u will need a new head and a new gasket and u r really low on coolant so he gave me his number told me to call next day ne way i went to get water to fill it up and see if i could limp home pour water in to bottle and i could here it running out eventually found hose and carried on filling got home had my cousin who used to have a renault 5 gtt and had rebuilt that and quiet a few other engines he looked said na just pissed coolant every where i will re psyfon it for ya and bobs ur uncle



well to cut a long story shot it works now



MaLicE

 

[DTWD]

Cool. I was shocked when it happend to me as theres now warning about it. But when I think about it, its not really gonna be a big problem. So I am not that worried. And from what I have read here its not to much trouble. So fingers crossed its something easy.

Oh the subject of Renault 5 turbos, I saw one today, and I swear the guy driving it was no older than 15. He had 2 others with him who looked about 7 and 13. Looked very dodgy. I almost called the cops (mainly cos he looked like a t**t, especaiily his hair) just to check. But I never did.



Paul

 

[DTWD]

Fixed it, easier than I thought. Opened up the water filler and put this paste stuff in. Supposidly it goes around with the water and when it finds a hole it plugs it. Well it does do. Its now back to its former glory. But still needs a service.



Paul