Death by overheating

[Smcknighty]

So, I'm sitting by the side of the m25 watching the trucks roll by...

1.6d red light on the dash I pushed it a bit further till I could find a good bit of hard shoulder to cry on....

Water poured out the back and was still pouring when I went to look.. Not particularly steaming though..

My impossible question is - death by overheating or another roll of the dice?

What are folks experiences? Anyone just topped up with water and got her to live again??

[roscoe]

It sounds like you might be getting exhaust gas pressure in your coolant. It may be a head gasket gone, or worse a crack in the engine block or head. Head gasket is more likely i think though. Where is the water coming out of exactly?

I had issues like this and only last week diagnosed a tiny hairline crack in the precombustion chamber in the cylinder head, although i think cases like mine are not so common.

[Smcknighty]

Yeah could be - would make sense.

I don't fancy looking for the source of the leak right now, the m25 scares me!

How hard is the head gasket on these? Is there room to work on it?

[roscoe]

Ah i didn't realise that you were on the M25 right now! I would strongly recommend getting towed to your destination rather than attempt to drive it with missing a bunch of coolant. You may well cause more damage.

You might even find that the problem is something more simple like a bust coolant pipe or something, either way, you can't fix it on the side of the M25.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

[kit]

The 1.6 is all but bullet proof my guess is a pipe or a broken ancillary belt.

[roscoe]

Ah, and with regards to head gaskets, it would take a large part of a day for a mechanic to get in there and replace it. I did mine myself over a few weeks when i had a free evening, first time learning too. You obviously need to diagnose what's up with yours first though...

[R0B]

I hope you haven't cooked it fella.As a red light means stop immediately.

1.6d red light on the dash I pushed it a bit further till I could find a good bit of hard shoulder

[kit]

Roscoe the 1.6 diesel only has 1 head and it is fairly accessible.

[roscoe]

Roscoe the 1.6 diesel only has 1 head and it is fairly accessible.

You are correct, and I wasn't saying otherwise. We can all agree that it is not job for the side of the M25 though, if indeed that even is the problem.

[kit]

Sorry miss read your use of the plural defiantly not a roadside job or a limp home situation.

[Smcknighty]

Been a bit busy since but thanks for the posts. Not a limp home job - thats what id say as well. However the RAC say differently.... Their outsourced guy turned up and told me that as theres no coolant on the road (it evaporated in the 1.5 hours he took to turn up) that filling it with water and driving on is the perfect solution... He did give me the useful tip that even for a car this old I should consider using coolant rather than water as coolant is better innit.. Anyway, argued the point a lot, followed him to a petrol garage off the m25 (gauge back up to far right again) and was told i could wait for four hours for the rac to turn up or just push on, his mechanics were working with the rac's mechanics but couldnt think what the problem was or even the first way to fix it.... spent about 30 minutes trying to get hold of rac with no joy, then with the option of not getting to work tomorrow i pushed on with regular stops.. Eventually it got to the point where the van was so hot it wasnt going anywhere..... Finally got hold of rac, was told it would be four hours again - pointed out they had probably killed the engine with their sh&*t advice and eventually got taken home around 4am or so.

Moral of the story dont pay for the RAC, they are a waste of time......

Anyway, what was the problem? Still not 100% on that.. Been busy ripping everything apart, rad out, water pump out, now thinking that maybe the gauge is not working great (although the red light and coolant over heat was real!) But the 1.6 na is a tough beast as its still firing up and still pulling like a very tired and overloaded train... Most obvious culprit at the time though was the extremely slack aux belt... Surely the RAC could have thought this was worth checking...!