The other day I was surprised to see the coolant reservoir empty - with no obvious leaks. I refilled the reservoir and drove for about 3 miles and stopped to have a look at the level and water was being forced out of the coolant reservoir cap. A further drive of around 10 miles and the reservoir was totally empty. The temperature gauge allways read "normal".
Is this simply the case of a faulty reservoir cap? Or is it a symptom of the head gasket u/s?
Thanks
That does sound suspiciously like a head gasket problem. It's not unusual on these engines (it happened to mine), but not too much of a major problem to put right. With the engine fully warmed up, the radiator hoses should be squeezable under moderate thumb pressure. If they are tight like a drum, the cooling system is over pressurising; number one suspect is the head gasket.
If you are handy with a spanner, and have a torque wrench, it's a few hours to a day's work (may be two, if you have not done one before), but you need to get the head checked for distortion, and have it skimmed if necessary (if it's only slight, it is posible to dress the head on a surface plate with some emery, but this can be a lot of hard work).
Sorry, sound like head gasket (or other such leak into cooling system from combustion chamber.)
-- Mike F. Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.
NOTE: new address!! Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly. (But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)
it may be a water pump problem also...don't let the motor get too hot...
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