Overfilled Coolant on Fiat Punto

Hi all,

Stupidly overfilled the coolant on my Punto (R-reg) this morning (with antifreeze) to well above the max line (pretty much to the top of the plastic overflow reservoir). I was wondering if:

1) It would be a bad thing to run the car. The plastic reservoir does not apear to have an overflow to release excess water as it expands. It also has a plastic cap as opposed to the springy metal ones that release when too much pressure builds up. Any opinions?

2) Anybody has easy solutions to removing some. I can't seem to find a drain point on the radiator - will I have to remove a hose and let some drain out, and if I do is it all likely to pour out so quickly that I'll end up having to refill the whole lot and get airlocks, ect. My other two options are: siphon out (bit worried about getting anti-feeze in my mouth!) or stuff an old absorbant rag/towel in and let it soak up the excess, maybe wring it out a couple of times and repeat.

Any comments/other suggestions greatly appreciated!

Richard.

Reply to
Richard Conway
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it won't hurt, there is facility in the cap to let pressure/fluid go. remove the pipe at the bottom of the tank or get a sucker and remove some.

mrcheerful

Reply to
mrcheerful

You could take the hose off the expansion tank (reservoir) and drain it from there, as that's a lot smaller, and things should be more controllable - careful that it doesn't soak anything electrical nearby though.

Or you could use some form of syringe/small pump to suck some out, or the absorbent sponge/rag thing should work. But yes, I'd avoid siphoning it, just in case!

Reply to
AstraVanMan

There's only one hose that has an adustable jubilee clip on it though (and it's a huge house near the bottom!) - the others seem to have some other kind of clip that I'm not sure how to undo - I suppose I could just priseit off and then put a new standard jubilee clip back on.

Might just try and do the rag thing - people seem to suggest that running it as is probably wouldn't really be a problem, but I'd be happier if I could at least get some out. I'm sure that as soon as I force a towel or something down into it it will probably displace a fair bit of the water anyway.

Reply to
Richard Conway

Trigger pack nozzle, like from kitchen cleaner or plant sprayer avoids getting mouthul of antifreeze.

Adam

Reply to
Adam Aglionby

Ah, now there's a plan! I knew there would be a solution out there I couldn't think of that would be spot on. If I do this I could even squirt it back into the antifreeze bottle and save wasting it.

Reply to
Richard Conway

Unless that's an "antifreeze/water mixture, in the correct proportions" bottle, don't do it. Get another bottle, and fill it up with the right concentration of antifreeze/water, just in case. Don't put an antifreeze/water mixture back in a bottle of neat aunty freeze though.

Reply to
AstraVanMan

Ah yes, it was a bottle of pre-mixed. It is empty now after my mishap this morning though! If I put it back in then I can keep it for if it needs topping up in future.

Reply to
Richard Conway

Get a big plastic syringe from the chemist or friendly med practice and suck it up via the filler.

Reply to
Hirsty's

Turkey baster :)

Reply to
Tony Bond (UncleFista)

Turkey basters are a little slow but work well for things like this. Failing that a battery hydromter could be used - just clean it very well before you dip it in the next battery.

Reply to
Chris Street

Pregnant pause !!!!!

Reply to
Hirsty's

use a turkey baister to suck it out, I use one at work, for the very same thing if we've a customer who's overfilled summit !

Reply to
reg

Hi all,

Thanks everyone for replies/ideas - especially Adam who provided the solution I went for. Did it this morning with a trigger from some old kitchen cleaner - took a while but worked a treat, so thanks!

Reply to
Richard Conway

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