Wife's Saxo diesel recently had a radiator leak, now repaired. The car never overheated, and the most I had to top the expansion bottle at any one time was about a quarter litre. On checking recently I have noticed air bubbles in on the coolant, quite a froth sometimes. Coolant level remains constant, as does oil level and there is no sign of cross contamination.
Head gasket on the way, or perhaps something simple? (and cheap!)
Thoughts appreciated.
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Tom, Did you fix it yourself or did a non Citreon garage. i.e. has the rad got the right antifreeze in it.
Repeated bleeding this whilst the engine is running should clear the air. However I am concerned how the air got in there. Before doing all this fancy bleeding I would suggest a bleed with the front raised and then replace the cap. Go for a run to get the car up to temp then carefully remove the header cap until the pressure has fallen, then replace the cap and run the engine again say a couple miles accelerating hard then carefully remove the cap again, if it has repressurised itself again then I suspect the head gasket is leaking/weeping. Could be seepage from a combustion pot to the waterway you could have the head bolts undone and re-tightened to the spec, you will be surprised how loose they can become. However this may only be a short term fix or even break a bolt doing it up put I’ve sealed several heads this was as long as it is only a seep and the head, and or the gasket, has not been etched by the high pressure gases. Regards Peter
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Does the system pressurise quickly after start up (hoses go hard within minutes of starting?). If so, then its HGF....
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Thanks for those replies, i'll try both suggestions the weekend. I will have th confess that the radiator was repaired with radweld. I have been using halfords own brand anti freeze with a 50/50 mix.
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Have tried aprilia's suggestion of checking the hoses within a couple of minutes of starting, they remained supple after six minutes and there was no air escape when I removed the pressure cap.
Peter, I was under the impression that anti freeze was anti freeze, how would I know if halfords budget stuff was ok and would this froth up?
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Air bubbles and frothing are not quite the same thing. It may be that the radweld is the reason for the froth and as you do not appear to be over pressurising the system then all may be OK.Pug and Cit are tetchy about their antifreeze as they have experienced corrosion caused by the mix of aluminium blocks, steel liners, and aluminium radiators. and the Cit stuff is only £3 a litre. Keep an eye on the water. Regards Peter
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