Minor Scare Today

[jpskiller]

I had just done a little trip out 5-7 miles, and on way back popped into sainsburys and noticed my water level light had come on, so drove round to petrol station to get some water, by the time I get there steam is coming out of front of car.

Pop the bonnet and notice the top water hose to radiator had come off, so I let car cool down re-fix pipe and Jubilee clip back on and fill up..

Question is what could have caused this pipe to pop off like that..

 

[Seamster15]

Air lock? when was the last time you refilled\checked the water level ?

Simon

 

[Dieselman]

Loose clamp which expanded when hot allowing the pipe to come off.

 

[grober]

I take it you topped up with water??? Remember that coolant should be 50/50 water /antifreeze for proper internal water passage corrosion prevention.
P.S. this includes protecting CHG's of course!

 

[jpskiller]

Air lock? when was the last time you refilled\checked the water level ?

Simon

Id Checked it only the day before and it was fine.. I Was fitting a replacement ICV but everything else looked OK

 

[Mark300SL]

Nothing to do with this ?
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=58242


If head gasket is gone then the coolaning system could pressurise and blow the pipe off

 

[jpskiller]

Nothing to do with this ?
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=58242


If head gasket is gone then the coolaning system could pressurise and blow the pipe off

I Have had a leak down test done and only problem is a little oil leaking from front of head on the exhaust side

 

[jpskiller]

Well guys, topped up coolant, haven't used car since this happened, went out today and it did it again..... this never happened before I replace the ICV but is that just a coincidense... need help and advise

 

[jpskiller]

Its the top hose that keeps coming off, Ive just noticed that there is about an inch of plastic pipe in the rubber pipe before the jubilee clip, so when i slid it on there is only about half an inch for it to grip, is this normal or has the radiator plastic connector broken, if so do you have to replace the whole radiator or can it be repaired.

Again like to point out this never happened until fitting replacement ICV

 

[230K]

Hi

There must be a bit of the radiator broken off, you could try moving the jubilee clip closer to the end of the pipe. Possibly broken off inadvertently when you were working on the car. Is it the main top hose 30/40mm size or is it 8/10mm size. I have seen them broken on the 606 engines that have a little pipe running across the top of the rad. Not sure if your car has this small pipe. Time to improvise i think.

230K

 

[jpskiller]

Yep the connector is definatly broken, just pulled out about an inch of plastic pipe from the large hose (top pipe) unfortunatly there is not enough pipe left on the radiator to get a good grip, is that plastic section replaceable or is new rad time..

 

[grober]

New radiator I'm afraid. This is quite a common problem -later rads' inlet pipes had metal re-enforcement embeded to combat the problem.

 

[Ian B Walker]

New radiator I'm afraid. This is quite a common problem -later rads' inlet pipes had metal re-enforcement embeded to combat the problem.

Not quite dead. I can engineer a repair, care of my local machine shop.

 

[purplegoddess]

Not quite dead. I can engineer a repair, care of my local machine shop.

too late ive just bought him a replacement

 

[Ian B Walker]

too late ive just bought him a replacement

send it back if you can.

 

[purplegoddess]

send it back if you can.

PM Sent