wont keep water down!!!! HELP!!!!

hey, was leaving silver stone today, and noticed steam comin from under the hood, so pulled over, poped bonnet and well the header tank was pissing water out. not really showed up on temp guage 11/2 bars but seeing as it was silly hot and i was sitting in traffic didnt think too much of the temp gauge, anyway. let it cool down, water was low but astill had a fair amount in there. so joint the traffic agian after like 5 mins steam again sopulled in to car park and checked under hood, took cap of teader tank expecting water/ steam to go everywhere and nout NO WATER AT ALL!!!! so much hav dumped it all so topped it back up made sure all the hoses had water in them started it up with cap off no prob then put cap on still gd, drove it around carpark for about 5 mins all gd, checked under hood one last time..... NO WATER AGAIN!!!! temp gauge is at about 1 bar! so filled up again and let it idle with cap off, and well just bubbles up, so guessing still had air in so, put about 5liters of water in and then it just dumped all of that in like 30 sec's!!!!
was sooooo hot and i was getting a little steamy my self ( no pun ment) so just towed it home with my mates 106 S2 rallye!

Any ideas peoples????

I have a few if this is the 8v 1.8.
Either gas is getting into the system via the head gasket, causing the water pressure to rise and therefore blow the cap on the expansion chamber.
Or the cap on the expansion chamber is faulty.
Or there was air in the system and something made it bubble over.
Or there is a leak somewhere difficult to spot.
Or a mixture of two or more of the above.

Sounds like you have down a few things I would have checked for, I had this problem on my 8v and I did something similar. When you refilled the car with water, did you leave the engine running without the cap on until the fan kicked in? That way you know that the radiator has opened up fully and therefore you have got rid of the air in the system.

I then disconnected multiple hoses and flushed the whole system with water before filling it with a proper coolant. I replaced the expansion cap and made sure the new coolant came through clean. I also found a small leak that only happened when the radiator was fully open, it was hard to spot as it was small but high pressured so just steamed immediately. Once replaced and the other work it was fine again.

i had this on my mk1 gti, it turned out to be the temp sender in the head the valve that bolts to the head and the top hose connects to it! replaced this and problem solved its not cheap though i think it was about £80 odd quid and that was with a discount at gsf

also another good way to get air out of the rad is to take off top hose and fil the rad with antifreeze and water till it starts to come out of the top hose again then reconnect everything

Always start with the free/easy things.

Fill it up and a squeeze the pipes to get the air through, then let it idle for about 45 mins, header tank cap off, squeezing the pipes every so often and let the fan cut in 2 or 3 times. This bleeds the air out.

Move it to a dry peice of ground and let it idle fo a while, move it and see if theres any puddles, especially around the water pump and radiator area.

Then take it for a drive, if it over heats again pull over and see if the hoses feel under more pressure than normal, if they are you need to get a garage to do a sniffer test on the water to see if it has exhaust gas in. This will tell you if the headgasket has gone.
Don't beleive the old rule of clouds of thick white steam from the exhaust and mayonaise like oil. It all depends on where the headgasket has failed.

Good luck.

Stu

i have filled it up checked all the hoses hav water in them, let it run with out the cap on and after 10mins it boils over, going to hav a look to nite flush it and cheack the termastate. see what happens then. thanks for the replys everyone and i will check them all out see if i can find the problem.

If it boils over then either gas is getting into it that makes it boil or it is not cooling properly due to temp.

Does the radiator fan kick in properly and does the radiator actually heat up? Check all the pipes are getting hot.

look under the oil cap? white stuff = head gasket. exactly the same happened on my mates corrado. whole tank of water vanishing within 30 secs!

hopefully not that bad!

10 mins idle and it boils, its either a major head gasket blow or a blocked rad.

Always do the cheap/free things first, disconnect the pipes to the rad, put a garden hose in one of the stubs and see if the water backs up and flows slower out of the other stub. Make sure you do this so the water goes the same way as when its running. Backwashing could move more crud and cause a blockage even if you don't have one.

I cant remember the flow direction I'm afraid.

Also inspect the radiator for anything caught in it. I had a page from the times blocking my rad once, caused havoc!

Also see if the fins are in good condition, sometimes they collapse and fall out. This then decreases the surface area the rad has to dissipate the heat.

Keep us posted.

Stu

looks like it could be new head time!!!!
put water though and it looks ok no blocks, took thermastate out and tried running car like that to see it it was that and nout changed, just out of intrest went around the back of car and there seams to be more water coming out zorst than iv seen on any car before, not loads but some. so head off time, thinking with the temp its been getting to may have done the head in ! but if its the gasket only result! only time will tell


thanks to everyone that has helped us out.

Damn shame if it is but the head might not have warped especially if it did not get critically low on water. Let us know and we can get the head of quickly and take a look.

It sounds like the headgasket, pull the plugs and see if they look rusty or are wet, smell them and see if they smell like coolant. Still wouldnt tell you for sure, but if your exhaust is mimicing an garden hose, then I'd say you were spot on with your diagnosis.

You would need to have the head skimmed as a precaution anyway. Its more likely to be hot spots around the head that would have warped it. Water volume isnt to critical.

Try Apsley transmissions in Apsley, Hemel, down the side of Apsley motor spares. they skimmed a 16V head for me a year or 2 ago, quick turn around and a good price.

yer ill see how it goes may even just change engine!!!! yer if i stick with the engine ill take it down to them, try see his drag car!!!

really need to get head off and see whats going on

Off with it's head.

Just a thought... but maybe the water pump is worth checking as ive heard of cases where the fins can break off and therefore cannot pump the water round the system sufficiently.... thus leading to overheating and then head gasket problems!

water pump seams to be ok, checked that. done the head gasket now just need this stupid knock sensor and she should be alive again!!!! but run out of moneys till my wages clear! so with any luck will on thurs then stright to Gsf to get sensor and back on the roads and with any luck get my new dub in a week or 2