Club 80-90 Forums

O.K. being a water cooled novice can anyone help.

My polo overheats within 5 miles.......(unfortunately guage does not work) all water goes from the water bottle........only just seen a slight leak from radiator.........now as soon as I pour in more wat-er it has gone straight away from bottle but does not just leak out ?

ok im no expert in the way of the polo but is the bottle your filling up plastic?
if yes,you need to put water into the radiator itself as you may be filling the expansion tank.

if no,im buggered if i know.

jed

radiator looks all sealed...............knew I shoudl have bought an Aircooled car

ive allways pictured you driveing around in one of these for some reason



http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=tbn ... om/images/

But if you drive it another 5 miles it will overheat again I expect - until you fix the rad leak?

the water is filling a void until you drive it enough to build up pressure at which point it will leak from any weak spots in the system.

Also Julie, not quite sure what you are asking? - TBH, so maybe have answered it or maybe not.

Clive I am not sure what I am asking.......how does one fix a radiator leak? someone told me to put an egg in it but as a vegan this is not an option

use a tube of tiger seal,you can glue anything with it.

Theres a proper fix (rad out, dry down and soldering)

then theres ain-situ fix with Bars Leak (always worked for me) or Holts Radweld or similar - follow the instructions to the letter...

has it got rad fan (electric fan) and does it come on (makes a fan sound ) when the thing gets really hot?

As a polo driver for past 4 years.........
What year Polo?

Rad is sealed. Fill up the coolant system via plastic header tank
When you fill up the plastic bottle does the water dissapear straight away or over night or only when you run the engine.

You could try a radweld type fix for the rad but it might be better to sort over heating first.

I'd look at the thermostat. is it opening OK?

Next take the rad out and flush it. Will water flow through OK?

T

Polo is a mark 2 ...water goes through right away so can I put radweld straight into plastic bottle bit ?

yes you put the radweld in the plastic header bottle but if it was me i would get some radflush first. then radweld it

but just topping it up with water isn't finishing the job, it needs bleeding to remove the air from the system.

fill the header bottle with water , start engine with header bottle cap still removed, keep topping up header till it take no more keep engine running air bubbles will come from header, keep running till the bubbles get less or stop, top up again if needed. replace header cap.

stop engine, leave for 20 mins, then carefully remove header cap again repeat above,

juile your temp gauge was working when you were at coney farm?

It was I think it is due to wiring that is no longer works.....right i will try those things Martin then sell it as I no longer need it and keep to the use of my van as a daily driver again