Danny P

Couple weeks ago the car overheated briefly. As soon as the temp gauge got to high the car was pulled over and towed home. At home I found that the drivers side fan was dead (directly hooked up to battery) so I swapped that out. It's my wife's car so she drove it for a few days and called me saying she overheated again. When I go there I saw the coolant was low and had it towed home. When I added water I saw that the radiator had a pin hole leak. So I replaced the radiator. As I filled it to bleed it It showed some bubbles that eventually stopped. I took it for a test drive and first half hour went great then I pulled over to check under the hood and saw that the overflow tank at the elbow had a hole in it and was spraying coolant at the engine. The temp went a bit over half way this time before I got home but steam was shooting out of that hole at the overflow tank like a pressure cooker.

I dont see any signs of coolant in the oil, and I dont see oil in the coolant or under the oil cap... but the way that steam was shooting out of that hole makes me think that may have been exhaust pressure... but I am not sure... what could this be? Should the overflow tank see that type of pressure. Not getting any smoke out of the exhaust either.

Please help. Thanks in advance. I have video of that steam shooting out of the elbow of the overflow tank (where it is broken) if it will help I will upload.

thoiboi

Make sure it's bled properly:

Danny P

Thanks... I got it. After filling it up and bleeding it I had purchased a new radiator cap and placed the new one next to the old and notice the old one was missing the center piece of rubber that the new one had. I put the new cap on and no more overflow tank issues or overheating after an hour and a half test drive.

Tend to go for the more serious issues first I guess it's my nature but she is all good now. Thanks.

thoiboi

"keep it simple stupid" came into play here I guess

Danny P

Sure did... even for a software engineer that should have know better... Thanks again...

BTW that Eric the car guy is probably one out of a handful of youtube mechanics that I actually trust and understand... Have an E30 that I am rebuilding for turbo and have used his advise a few times. Good instructor.

thoiboi

ETCG is a fricking saint.

csmeance

be sure to run the heating system to get the coolant into and out of that and remove the air! The plastic on the upper rad bottle loves to crack with age. Also check the intake manifold boot (one that looks like an accordion) and usually it's cracked on the underside.