Coolant System Bubble/High Pressure

[kingsebastian]

It's been a few days for me as well after changing the rad cap....so far results are good. I haven't heard the gurgling noise after a flush and new rad cap.

Hopefully problem solved.

 

 

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[Spoolin06XT]

Got the new hose and rad cap this morning, installed the hose and burped the system again with the front end up on ramps. Filled the reservoir up to full? So far so good, the hose held its own. I got the temps up to 214F (then the fan kicked in and lowered it to about 200F) by turning the air off. The hose feels much more firm/rigid compared with the old one, even when pressurized. Also, it didn't try to slide off the radiator port as shown before.

 

I went for a 5km loop that was mostly city, with a quick jump on and off the highway. When I got home, there was no bubbling in the reservoir, and it was still at the full mark.

 

One thing I did notice was, I think I had the rad hose on 'backwards'. In the photos I posted before, there was a yellow dot and not an arrow on the radiator-side of the hose. The hose isn't 100% symmetrical and looking at photos from google images, it seems like the arrow should point towards the radiator. I suspect this might've caused some of my issues post-timing belt service that I did back in October.

 

This evening I was able to remove the rad cap without it being pressurized. I did notice the coolant in the reservoir appeared to be slightly lower than the full mark; I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this as I can't be sure it was perfectly at the full mark earlier in the day or not. I plan on taking it for a much longer drive in the next few days to dot the i's and cross the t's.

 

 

 

That's great news! Hope it remains that way for you. I too ordered a set of hoses and caps. I will be trying the same in a few days with fingers crossed.

[Spoolin06XT]

It's been a few days for me as well after changing the rad cap....so far results are good. I haven't heard the gurgling noise after a flush and new rad cap.

Hopefully problem solved.

 

 

Sent from my Redmi 4X using Tapatalk

 

@kingsebastian.....awesome news.....hope as well this continues to work good for you and solves your issue.

[apokalypse]

Whelp... I joined the club of people who had to MacGyver a blown off rad hose with nothing more than a bad pair of pliers 20km from home, on my way to a brewery. The hose I replaced pulled itself off the radiator when I was cruising on the highway. I was able to pull off, assess the situation, limp the car to get some water (hopefully without it having damaged anything further), add what seemed like far too much water through the rad, hit up a hardware store for a worm clamp, tighten it down, have a beer, buy some beer, and drive back home while blasting the heat on high. What a fun Saturday!

 

Yesterday I took all the hoses off/pulled the tstat and flushed the block just to clean everything out. I noticed in the lower rad hose that it is deteriorating as well, so I have one on order from the stealership. I also noticed that I had left the drivers side fan disconnected after my timing belt work in October, which is likely a contributing factor to my problems

 

I bought some t-bolt clamps and replaced all four spring clamps today, filled the car with distilled water and went for a drive much closer to home. The clamps seem to be holding fine, and I'll put it through the paces of a longer drive tomorrow. I did notice that the level had risen in the overflow tank, which tells me the cap is working (and there wasn't any leaking from hoses, so the clamps are holding well).

 

I'm going to track down some Mishimoto constant tension hose clamps, since they seem to be a bit more ideal than the t-bolt clamps, unless there's a good reason not to change them out.

 

Addendum: Am I my own worst enemy?

 

I went out this evening to top off the coolant system and I noticed it was leaking a bit... traced the leak to the rad filler neck. Ho hum - I bought a no-leak funnel... it worked great the first time I used it! Why isn't it working now? I used the same coloured neck and cap.

 

I tried tightening up the cap flanges where it holds tight onto the rad neck, but that didn't help. Water still came out. It kind of looked like the overflow hose wasn't on all the way so I made sure that was fine, and re-clamped the no-spill neck and cap. But still, water leaked.

 

And then it struck me... wasn't there a grommet in the bottom of the rad neck? I looked, and there wasn't.

 

But ... wasn't there supposed to be a grommet on the no-spill neck piece? There is on all the others ones!

 

But ... wait, did I accidentally leave the no-spill grommet in the rad neck, which prevented the rad cap from opening and caused a failure at the weakest link (the upper rad hose)? Myth: plausible

 

I stole a grommet from the smaller no-spill neck and I'm definitely making sure I pull it out tomorrow morning...

Edited July 21, 2020 by apokalypse
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