Hi Guys,
Yes, a different fault from my earlier post on a different PUG 309D.
Just picked up an H plate Pug 309D for £15! It has a tank that?s ¾ full, plus 6 weeks tax left on it, so that alone has to be worth the money.
Not surprisingly, it has been neglected and to describe it as ?tatty? would be a gross understatement. Still, it started (eventually) and managed the 7 miles back to my place - well, almost.
The first of what I suspect of many, many faults is with the cooling system. When the car warmed up, after starting it up for the first time in 6 weeks, steam quickly poured out of the filler cap, with a high speed whistle. Feeling the feed pipe to the rad. was like gripping a metal pipe; the pressure in there was really high.
The heater worked fine in the car, so I guess the water pump was working. The radiator also got hot, showing the thermostat must have opened. I had to stop once on the way home to top up the expansion tank. The pressure released when undoing it was impressive, but I was prepared, so no nasty face wash with boiling rusty water!
Also, with the filler cap off and the engine running, water & steam gushes up and out the tank on a cyclic basis like a mini geyser!
Any ideas what would cause such a massive pressure to build up and open the pressure release of the filler cap?
Many thanks in advance for any help.
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Hi,
From your description, I'd say the head gasket has well and truly gone. From your statement of the car, I would suggest draining the tank of fuel, taking off anything of value and then taking it to the nearest scrappy. The age and condition you describe defines that its not worth repairing.
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These are the views of Robin the Technician with 35 years in the trade. I fix, therefore I am...
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Sounds like this car is only good for knocking over poorly position speed cameras.
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£15 for the car was expensive!
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groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
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Thanks guys! Well at leat I got £20 worth of diesel for £15 and a shed load of spares for my even older, but trusty well cared for 309GLD.
Just one question though: if the head gasket had gone wouldn't I see tell tail white foam around the dip stick? Dip stick just shows lovely thick black neglected oil.
I'd like to say that I could tell buy seeing steam from the exhaust, but the dotty old lady I got it from thought she'd fill the oil up for me before I got there - and I mean really fill! She'd never heard of using the dip stick, poor old dear. The car didn't half do it's best red arrow impression on the way home...
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Sound like a blown head gasket. It is so bad that you could have water in oil sump and oil in the water. Are there drops of water on the dipstick? Is the expansion tank full of sludge?
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Ah, as a donor vehicle, it makes a lot of sense for £20, plus the fuel left in the tank!
There are often no external signs of the head gasket failure apart from coolant shooting out of the expansion tank.
It's a case of buyer beware.
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groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
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Thanksfor the reply PG.
Couldn't really say about the state of the expansion bottle before I started it up, but with the top off to fill it up (whilst engine running) just caused the lovely rust coloured water to gurgle up and out.
Once switched off, I still didn't see any oily gunk (or white foam) around the top of the expansion bottle neck. But I guess with it's 'hot geyser clean' it could have been washed away. The expansion tank certainly couldn't be described as clean though.
Out of morbid interest, I'll whip the head off and have a look at the horrors within.....
Thanks for taking the time to reply guys - very much appreciated.
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