Hi all,

After getting my car serviced yesterday the garage (not naming names) left the cap off of the water/anti freeze header tank (i think thats what its called) and 8 miles down the road when i pull into a garage i see steam pouring out of the engine bay!

Shat myself, as I was by a petrol pump in a huge petrol station so pushed the car to a safe area.

Let it cool down and after we opend the boonet I saw that they left the bloody cap off!
Called the garage, and they sent someone out to put some more anti freeze in and they did exactly that - checked the car was ok after getting hot etc.

It was steaming for about 6/7 minutes but it didnt empty radiator and there was still a small ammount of water/anti freeze left in the tank.

My question is, has this posed any risk to my engine? No fire broke out, but there was alot of steam and I was driving like it for about 3-4 mins.

Thanks

 

The only way to tell is to run it and see.

I would not expect any more damage than a head gasket gone, if there is any damage at all.

 

If there was still water in the header tank then it's probably okay. There would still be water in the cooling system to keep the engine at the correct temperature.

It has happened to me before in another car and I suffered no ill effects.

 

Phew! Thank **** for that, I was really scared that i'd have an expensive repair on my hands

That's a relief to say the least

 

But you wouldn't have had an expensive bill! If the engine was damaged then the garage should put it right FOC! I certainly wouldn't accept anything else for such a basic errror.

 

Probably no damage.

How much water had to go in? The system holds 7odd litres of coolant, so if only 1 litre was needed to top back up, then there is still 6 litres sloshing around in there.

Secondly, 5 mins of running isn't enough to for the engine to overheat, you could run it with zero coolant for 10mins or so without harm.

Biggest concern is air lock, so make sure the heater works, and go for a run for as long as it takes for the engine to get up to temp (about 20mins) keeping an eye on temps and making sure the heater stays working. Then stop, let it cool down and recheck the levels, top up if needed.

I presume the bloke topped it back up with premixed antifreeze and water? If it was just plain water, then the mixture maybe on the weak side, the garage should be able to test if its ok with a hydrometer.

 

Had the same thing with another car, a Mondeo, and all was fine (my fault, not a garage) but would be more worried if it happened to a Scoob. Probably absolutely fine though.