Club 80-90 Forums

Without wanting to jump on this thread, GSF only sell 19mm oil sump plugs now for the T25. Told them that was wrong, they said tough.

I'm afraid he's right and what they do sell is pants. I've noticed the "we couldn't care less" attitude even with the trade, failing to order parts correctly or deliver on time. They seemed to go downhill rapidly after they 'revamped' their web site. Sadly the 'VeeWee' attempt failed to capture the T25 either so that was that. They just seem to be clearing shelves now. It does seem a strange coincidence that VW Heritage went for a massive push on VW stuff around the same time - capturing the market possibly.

make sure its securly fitted to the water bottle to test it!

blowing/sucking off the vehicle is not a test , it needs to be fitted.

How do you test it once it is fitted?

you need to suck blow on the outlet


use a peice of tube, that you can get a good seal on or loosen the bottle and get your lips around it!


you should only be abble to blow not suck

the clamping effort of the screw thread clamps the cap together inside creating the seal.

inccedently most original caps that are faulty only need a strip down / clean as its usually gunk/dirt that makes them faulty, not wear or damage- i have stripped loads and only ever had 2 that were not reusable once cleaned!

billy739 wrote: the clamping effort of the screw thread clamps the cap together inside creating the seal.

You learn summat every day

Mind you I have found that the brickwerks ones do the one way thing off the vehicle, not sure what that is about...

billy739 wrote: incidentally most original caps that are faulty only need a strip down / clean as its usually gunk/dirt that makes them faulty, not wear or damage- i have stripped loads and only ever had 2 that were not reusable once cleaned!

Agreed,

I find that attaching them to a hose pipe (with appropriate "sleeving up") and blasting some water though them usually clears the crud out after a couple of go's.

The cap holds the cooling system at a pre-ordained pressure then, as/if it exceeds this set pressure coolant is passed from the header tank to the top-up tank which has a breather hole to allow it to fill up. As the system cools down while ever the coolant in the top-up tank is above the in pipe a syphon effect takes place with the coolant being drawn back along the hose to the header tank until the tank is full. This explains why the header tank must always be above the bottom and why the header tank MUST be full to the top because air can be compressed yet the coolant can't.

I only ever buy the VW/Audi blue cap from Brickwerks, the others are unknown quantities and therefore must always be suspect.

Ian.

Thanks for the info, I put the old one back for now as I am not confident with the GSF one but I will try testing it when the sun comes out.

Blowing Daleks until they quack - whatever next

Mind you I have found that the brickwerks ones do the one way thing off the vehicle, not sure what that is about...

just the way they are made and sometimes how they wear.

some are glued together , some are just pressed

old ones can seal with usage (dirt ect)

but so you can be sure it needs to be tested on the bottle , you could remove the bottle if your changing your coolant

I've been losing coolant from a leak underneath and even though the level is low in the header tank there's still have plently of coolant left in the expansion tank behind the number plate - it doesn't seem to be siphoning into the header tank.....faulty cap?

Sagemagoo wrote:I've been losing coolant from a leak underneath and even though the level is low in the header tank there's still have plently of coolant left in the expansion tank behind the number plate - it doesn't seem to be siphoning into the header tank.....faulty cap?

You need to fix the leak first. As the system cools, the sucking effect will suck from the easiest place it can and it is quite possible it is sucking air in from where the leak is, instead of sucking coolant in from the top up tank.

ghost123uk wrote:

Sagemagoo wrote:I've been losing coolant from a leak underneath and even though the level is low in the header tank there's still have plently of coolant left in the expansion tank behind the number plate - it doesn't seem to be siphoning into the header tank.....faulty cap?

You need to fix the leak first. As the system cools, the sucking effect will suck from the easiest place it can and it is quite possible it is sucking air in from where the leak is, instead of sucking coolant in from the top up tank.

THANKYOU!!!! Sometimes I am really glad I read everything I can.....I have air bubbles in my coolant header tank when the engine is revving....engine has been out, had new rings, valves reground and we can't find any cracks. Engine now pulling well, and isn't getting hot. But I can't get the thing bled. When I go left round a corner downhill (very explicit but I have 2 such jucntions on the way home) I get a whiff of coolant in the cab....which means its leaking somewhere down by the rad / heater matrix supply. So it could be sucking air from there as well as me having a bleeding nightmare (in all senses of the word!)

I am also going to put the darlek from Ritchie on Ermie....just to make sure its not the darlek cap.

Cheers Ghost.

Em
xx

ermie571 wrote:
....I have air bubbles in my coolant header tank when the engine is revving....

That ain't good I am afraid, it won't suck air into the cooling system whilst it is running, only as it cools down, engine off. Bubbles when running are nearly always head gasket or cracks. Any decent garage can do what they call a "sniff test" to check for combustion gasses in the header tank.

I know Ghost.

Had the engine out once - will get it sniff tested again.

Em
xx