Bubbles in my coolant ... as bad as I think? (1.6d)

[NeedABus]

I'm losing quite a bit of water and there was a bit of sludge (more muddy than oily) on the expansion cap. Having remnoved the sludge there doesn't appear to be any new stuff coming.

Hoping that there is an air lock of some sort I have started going through a bleeding process every time I drive. I noticed this morning that when it was running there were bubbles coming up in the expansion tank. Could this be cos of an airlock, or is head gasket problems more likely?

The heater works fine, and the temperature control is OK ish, although seems to get a bit hotter but always comes down.

There is no obvious steam/smoke coming from the exhaust.

It's a recon engine that's done 30k, and never once overheated.

Any suggestions?

[NeedABus]

Just found a split in the hose that goes from the back of the water pump to the bottom of the expansion tank - at the flange.

That explains the water loss.

Guess I'll just have to wait till I've changed that to see if I've any other worries.

[R0B]

sounds like you have sorted it...

[toomanytoys]

Yeah.. check the others too.. a little split appears and you lose it under pressure and then it sucks air in when cooling, bleed the rad..

"mayonaise" ont he oil filler cap can be common in cold weather.. ist moisture in the oil/engine not getting driven out.. short trips make this worse, so frequent oil changes are of the order if only short trips.. a good run will dry it out though (if it is only condensation)

[TOMMY THE CAT]

I actually had a small split in the expansion tank! I was losing just a little water but everytime I went to bed I heard a water sucking sound bubbles from the tank, feared something terrible only to remove the tank and found a small split at the back of the bottle. Tried buying one ,wrong bottle twice only to use that superb plastic weld stuff! Two years ago now
Sometimes things are not as bad as we think. D