Hi guys

Just had my car serviced this wednesday, and having a slight problem already

Its the coolant
basically - I'll start the car up and warm it up , drive it slow until oils are warm, give it a good blast, now after ive given it a good blasting for at least 10 mins and i start to drive sensibily, slowing down or even come to a Halt, Ive noticed that my coolant temp gauge starts to slowly creep up above half way line at first but now its creeping up to nearly 3/4s on the gauge,
But when stopping and opening the bonet up to check for leaks etc, the expansion tank seems to be full and the fan is also working correctly and it blows hot air too so im slightly confused
........HELP?

During the service the coolant was replaced with Motul coolant (the orange bottle from opie's website) and when the garage was putting this in they filled the rad up, switched the car on, and squeezed all the pipes etc until it was hot, the fan was also coming on and they checked if it needed toping up etc and adivsed for me to double check the levels when i get home, which i did and topped up slightly with the same stuff

done a little research on here regards air lock?....how do you get rid of this, whats the procedure?
a friend told me to take the two rad caps off and turn the car on and let it get hot, obviosuly the water will overflow from the tank and rad so wait untill all the bubbles disappear if there are any when its hot......is this right?
could it be something much worse?

Ive got a 2006 sti (if it helps) only done 25K miles

 

SCRAP IT. Juice its not a airlock. Ring extreme scoobies speak to nolsey he will give you advise over the phone.

 

Lol @ Scrap it. Juice i can't see it being a gasket. But i think you may need to get it looked at to be on the safe side. Not sure about overflowing the coolant though.

Do keep us posted on this thread though as coolant issues never seem to stop and everyone seems to have different problems.

 

Do you get a running water sound when you put the heater on - that is a common indicator of an airlock. I had that after my rad was last off, but no signs of the gauge going up.

If it was a head gasket I would expect the temperature not to come back down and it to start steaming fairly quickly once it went.

 

The coolant should be filled via the coolant hose coming off the turbo, this method ensures all air is out of the system, has worked 1st time round for me on several occasions, bring the car round to mine if you dont have any luck

 

take it back to hughberry
or go to motormasters
had the same problem myself after donnington saq
needed 2 litres of oil
and 500mls of water
cured it by running the engine and squeezing the pipework
with the caps off
kept a close eye on ther temp guage though
not sure if this makes a difference but car was facing downhill during cure
temps now fine its the shocks that are knackered

 

What Budgie said, if it was Hughberry that did it and there's an airlock they'll sort it for you

 

LOL @ scrap it, I shall probably take the same route as Ash.....get a BMW M3 turbocharged





NOT!!!

Il take it back to them first thing in the morning guys, cheers for advice

Just tried havign a go at it now, and i correct my self when I started the car with the caps off) I stuck heaters on full blast and as the car was warming up the heaters were still blowing cold air

hmmmm......so has the caps were off and the temp started getting higher i noticed loads of bubbles on the rad cap area. and after a while when the fan kicked in, i was getting short burst of water jumping out which was spraying everywhere in the engine bay...........Screwing!!!!!!
But heaters still blowing cold air.......anyway squeezed the top pipe and filled the expansion tank and rad with cold water (didnt want to waste the Motul) but still throwing it back out in short bursts.....

Its dark now and i cant be asked to F*** aroudn with it.. will be hughberry at 8am to sort this and will keep you posted

 

I wouldn't get to Hughberry at 8, they don't rock up until 9ish

 

it sounds like an airlock mate imo . can happen when a coolant change is done . its an easy fix but bring it back to hughberry and let em do it . as long as its not hitting the red u willl be ok mate

 

but they will need to get the caps offm and ill be drivign at least 18 miles to get there so i give it an hour for the car to cool down slightly so they can maybe attempt at taking the caps off

Could the cold air blowing out of the heaters be anything to do with termostat etc?

 

The cold air blowing out is the airlock preventing the hot water entering the heater matrix.

 

does sound like an air lock. the trick is to fill the system extremly slowley.

 

It's not an airlock- an airlock is when you have two sets of doors, you go thru the first set then they close then the second set open. Hope this helps mate.

 

Solved this guys, was an airlock. heaters now blow hot air whilst on idle and the temp gauge is stable in the middle and not going above half!!
phew!!!
ps - will double check fluid levels throughout the week to be on safe side too.

what happens when there is too much coolant in the rad/expansion tank/engine? im assuming it spits it out from somewhere

 

I have a plastic overflow next to the rad.

 

ok lads......guess what....you guesses right

its happening again.
could still be an airlock but i got a clue.

Ive just driven the car pretty hard today, and when driving hard the temp gauge is fine, however when at a stop you slowly see the gauge rise and i even put the heaters on when i was stopped and it was blowing cold air ----what does this mean? but when i carry on driving the car the gauge then stabilises

now regards getting rid of this airlock, i could take it back to hughberry but thats means anther 15 mile journey. or i could try at home but dont really wana cause a mess on the driveway etc
would i take off the rad cap by the turbo and switch the car on and wait for all bubbles to go?

 

I've been plagued by this problem on and off for nearly a year on my 06 STi as well.
The expansion tank fills up when the system gets hot from a good run, but every now and then the expanded coolant doesn't get sucked back into the system when cold.
When particularly bad, i have to help the system out by drawing back the expansion coolant into the header tank.
Temp gauge is always just lower than middle and logged temps are never above 96 deg cat which point the fans kick in.

I can go for months without the problem and then it can play up for several weeks and even cure itself.
The expansion tank NEVER overflows and there are very few bubbles I've ever seen.
I'm sure its something to do with the expanded coolant return process but can't pinpoint it

 

bad cap would cause this id of guessed, or bad connection/leak on the return line.