More Water Problems - HELP

[ridders]

Replaced water pump, thermostat, header tank cap (genuine VAG) then all of the water jacket seals. Reason for all this was water pushing back out of the top up tank and all over the road after about 20 miles of driving. Recent easter trip was a disaster as broke down twice due to the same problem. Had RAC out first time and he carried out a gas sniff test and couldn't find gasses in the water system. Then pressure tested the expansion cap. Found that this held pressure up to the point of the spring lifting then no matter how much he pumped on the pressure tester he couldn't get the pressure to go up. Then put the whole cap in a bowl of water and found air constantly bubbling out of the outlet pipe????
He then topped out what coolant i'd lost and gave the option of recovery home (+3 hour wait) or try and continue the journey (about 45 miles) we chose to continue. No overheating problems but never stopped until we go there. Rereturn journey haome and 20 minutes into journey got stuck in bank holiday traffic and temp gauge started to go up very quickly followed by coolant loss out of the top up tank followed by the level sensor light coming on so pulled over asap. Left to cool down and checked both tanks to find both were full of coolant. Bled radiator and found no air just coolant coming out. 4 hour wait for recovery truck followed by 3 hour trip home with 3 kids, missus and the dog!!!

Question: whats wrong with my van? I am quickly loosing interest in the whole t25 experience as well as running out of money to keep throwing at it.

Sorry this post sounds a bit long and boring but wanted to get it all down in the hope someone has the answer.

The van is 1.9 watercooled (Obviously) and a 1984 Holdsworth Hightop.

[The Silver Surfer]

I' not a expert by any means, but is sounds like the van is getting to hot in the first place.

The radiator and/or fan might be at fault here.

The fan should stop the water temp going over half way.

It sounds like the problems you are describing are a symptom of the water getting to hot and once this is cured the rest of your problems will go aswell.

You could fit a switch that manually operateds the the gan so you can switch it on when necessary.

I recently changed the water in my van, let it get hot until I could here the fan running. Then I put the grill back on a said job done.

[ridders]

Thanks SS,
When it first broke down the temp gauge was bang on centre and no low level coolant light on. Surely if it was getting hot the temp gauge would indicate this?

[The Silver Surfer]

Yes I agree.

I will ponder.....Fritz on here is a good chap to have a word with.

[clartsonly]

it sounds like it is full of air and the pressure is building and evactuating out of the overflow.

mine did this for ages when I had not bled it properly even to the point of now having 3 caps the original the only decent one and even to the point of spliting the expansion tank due to the pressure issues.

[Fritz]

Ridders, the next thing I would be looking at is all the small bore water pipes including the distribution pipe which runs around the inside of the engine bay. (Yours may be a metal one)
Make sure these are free from blockages due to sediment build up/corrosion etc.

After that it appears all that is left to eliminate is the radiator , and the only way to do this properly is by taking it off the vehicle ,,,,,once it is removed the weight of it should indicate if it is in need of a good flush out or even replacement...

Regards


Fritz,,,,,,,,,,,

[ridders]

Thanks Fritz,

How do i flush the system? i just want a van that we can use thats going to be reliable

[devdub]

I had a similar problem last year at about this time. I sat in traffic for about 20 mins, and when i finally drove up a hill we ended up blowing steam everywhere.

Turns out we had blown the water pipes where they go over the axle. We got recovered to a garage and were told that the flow and return were rotted right out along the whole rear half. Only one pipe was available and very expensive.

What I did was to take both the (very) rotten pipes home, bought 3meters of 28mm copper tube and bent them to the same shape,(it is not quite the same size, but some rubber tubes and jubilee clips make an excellent job. Once the system was refilled we have never had a problem again. Old Dudley runs smooth as silk and very cool.

The upshot is that I think the corrosion was so bad the the water couldn't circulate at all and for the first couple of years I had the van he was running too hot and this affected everything, performance and all.

I hope this helps...... In any case, if anyone has a problem with there pipes 28mm copper and a bending machine is your answer. It probably helps that I am a plumber but the cost of the whole repair was under £60..

Good luck, Steve (Devdub)