Club 80-90 Forums

sorry to dig this post up from ages ago, in the end i had to take my van in for an MOT and got the guys at the garage to do it...
anyway everything is fine with it only today i noticed that there is a little bit of air at the top of the reservoir, Is this a problem? Could i top it up with coolant directly into the reservoir? the fluid is already at the max line in the other tank.
Thank you in advance!!!

What was the cause of the rotten egg smell? It's always good to finish a thread in case someone else has the same problem in the future.

I have no idea to be honest it went away on it's own, very strange.

crookedmouth123 wrote:Could i top it up with coolant directly into the reservoir?

yes

But keep an eye on it. As you have learned ^^^ the system is supposed to suck coolant back from the tank behind the number plate flap as the engine cools (and the coolant volume shrinks). As your "number plate tank" (top up tank as we call it) has coolant in it, there may be a problem in that it is not sucking coolant back in the way it should. This is usually either a leak somewhere, where on cooling the system sucks air from the outside world into the system, a faulty "dalek" cap (the cap on the expansion tank with a pipe coming from it, or that pipe from the cap being leaky. As these engines are prone to damage if the coolant system is less than perfect, as said, keep an eye on that level.

E D I T = note, if you need to keep topping it up, use a 50/50 mix of water and whatever antifreeze you use, not just water, or over time your antifreeze mix will weaken and that is not good re freezing up or corrosion to head studs etc.

ghost123uk wrote:As your "number plate tank" (top up tank as we call it) has coolant in it, there may be a problem in that it is not sucking coolant back in the way it should.

If I understand correctly, the "number plate tank" (top-up tank) should always have some coolant in it - it has a minimum and maximum level mark for this reason.

This is usually either a leak somewhere, where on cooling the system sucks air from the outside world into the system, a faulty "dalek" cap (the cap on the expansion tank with a pipe coming from it, or that pipe from the cap being leaky.

The other reason your expansion tank could end up with gas in it is through compression of the coolant system by combustion products leaking into it. Basically if you have a leaky head gasket or similar engine problem somewhere, it can allow combustion gases from the engine to leak into the coolant system. In this case the gas would collect in the expansion tank and displace coolant into the top-up tank. In either case it will indicate issues that should probably be looked into sooner rather than later.

clift_d wrote:

ghost123uk wrote:As your "number plate tank" (top up tank as we call it) has coolant in it, there may be a problem in that it is not sucking coolant back in the way it should.

If I understand correctly, the "number plate tank" (top-up tank) should always have some coolant in it - it has a minimum and maximum level mark for this reason.

Correct, did I word that badly

When I said "there may be a problem in that it is not sucking coolant back in the way it should" the "it" was meant to refer to the expansion tank pulling coolant back from the top up tank.

Okay I will top it up with antifreeze (5050) at the main tank and see if the air comes back and will let you know.
I am not sure what anti freeze they put in the van in the garage, does it matter which one i get? is mixing them fine?
thanks

crookedmouth123 wrote: I am not sure what anti freeze they put in the van in the garage, does it matter which one i get? is mixing them fine?

No, it is NOT ok to mix them. Look at the colour of it and just match that. It should be pink/red, but if it's blue, top up with blue, If you look up "antifreeze" in our wiki (link near the top left of every page on here) you can learn all about this (and there you can check if red can mix with purple, if you find you have purple).

Sorry to jump in on this thread, but just thought I'd mention I too had a horrid rotten egg smell. Turned out to be the window washer tank in the passenger footwell. Took the cap off and whooooaaa! Proper stench!! Not sure if you checked that along the way?? I removed mine and gave it a thorough cleansing. There was even green mould in there.

crookedmouth123 wrote:Okay I will top it up with antifreeze (5050) at the main tank and see if the air comes back and will let you know.
I am not sure what anti freeze they put in the van in the garage, does it matter which one i get? is mixing them fine?
thanks

Oh dear...


You really should buy your own parts and service items.. even if you can't do things yourself, you can buy the stuff that's used on your van.
Garages make mistakes, mistakes cost you more money and quite possibly with disastrous consequences

I've also had problems with eggy smell due to rancid screen wash water. Every time you wash the screen the smell comes through the air vents. Nice.