Club 80-90 Forums

So after being out for a 25 min drive today in about 20°C temp a big puddle of water (about 3litres(possibly coolant as well)) appeared under the van.
It had only happened once finished driving and engine was off.

I have meticulously browsed the wiki and archive pages to ring similar problems but most were related to bleeding or draining.
Once cool the level of water in top up tank (flap) was reduced but not significantly (not as much as was on the floor), and is looking a bit orange in colour.

The header (dalek) tank was completely full the brim, was also orange in colour. (Is that the original olour of the coolant?)

Can any one she'd any light on this please.
Thanks

Paddy
P.s. We have had a similar problem before, but was a garage job, mechanic only spoke french so didn't find out the problem although he assured us in his best English it was fixed.

P.p.s The 20° is in Bratislava, lovely weather at the moment.

Orange is rust. Have you flushed and changed the coolant in living memory?

A new complete cooling system was installed summer 2012, with new coolant.

I'm by no means an expert but It could be so many things - I had a problem for months.
Air block (after a run open the bleed screw on the radiator a bit and see if air comes out)
Thermostat not working either get new or test old one on saucepan of water
Radiator(final link which seems to have sorted mine at long last)
Fan (is it swiching on when the needle foes over half way)
Failed Dalek (wait til it's dry and blow in it- it should toot if it's genuine and functioning properly)
Could even be one of the heads(LH on mine had problems) with no other signs of failure
blockage in the thin pipe that runs round the engine bay (mine was blocked)
Split pipe allowing air in-if it overheats again try and see if water is spurting out from any pipes.
The coolant should be pink

Try the cheap fixed first and by process of elimination it should be curable

Sounding like a air lock to me, odds on the coolant has been blown out the top vents on the top up tank,
The issue is of course , what caused the air ......

If it is an air lock and it has caused an amount of water to be thrown out, where did that come from and why have the levels not reduced significantly?

It makes sense that an air lock is a possibility as where the van came to its stop it was facing downhill.

I will do some playing.

Thanks

How about it being water that was trapped in the body somewhere and it isn't coolant at all? Did you taste it?

Bear Grylls tasted water that was trapped in the body. Saw it on his survival thing on tv last night

It had completely dried up by the time i went to investigate, (hot weather in Slovakia atm) there were no stains on the floor where it had been.

I am going to check bleed valve in a little while.

Paddy