Scottish Elises

Ok, I now understand the need for cooling down aswell as warming up the K Series. After a spirited but not radgelike drive from Glenrothes to Perth i suddenly hit a traffic jam. About 10 minutes later steam starts coming from the engine and temp reads 106+. Pulled in, opened up and the coolant was bubbling and leaking from the cap like a goodun

I waited for ages for it to cool down then filled it up to max with water from my camelbac. Set off again and all was well. 3 questions:

1.Have i done any damage to anything?
2.Was topping up with normal water ok?
3.Was this normal or does it sound like i have other issues (with the car)?

Cheers

Ron

Sounds like exactly what happened to Gregs car - I take it the fan didnt come on? Fan must be seized or fuse blown. His was fine for the rest of TT after topping up with water, but get the fan sorted or it`ll do it again. Hope that helps.

If there was still water in the system and the temp was only reading 106, you're probably fine. Could just be a dodgy seal on the pressure cap - get it replaced as soon as & if that doesnt solve the problem then get the coolant system pressure tested & take it from there.

You should really use distilled water in the coolant system to stop corrosion, but if it wasnt much you added you should be fine...

I wouldn't say this was normal, but it's not 100% unexpected either... Change the pressure cap & carry a few litres of water just in case!

Cheers,

Steve

Could be any of:

HGF
Air in the coolant system
Broken fan
Something else

I'd wait for a Jedi response before driving anywhere to avoid causing any more damage.

I wouldn't have thought a dodgy cap would cause that, certainly didn't on mine.

Weak expansion tank cap can cause this problem and would be the first thing to change.

Next, run up the engine and leave it idling. You should see the temperature rise and then level it out in the 80-90 range for a while. Now you can probably cheat and use some throttle, say 2000 RPM, and watch the temperature rise again. If it reaches >104 without the fan coming on, then switch off. The fan should come on around 100 (varies from car to car).

If the fan comes on, then you're looking at the cap or HGF, pretty much. If if the fan doesn't come on, the engine/cooling system are probably OK and you need to do the electrical tracking job to find out why fan doesn't work.

Let us know what you find.

Cheers,
Robin

Cheers guys

I've got the car booked into Falkland on thursday for a geo anyway. I'll get lee to have a look at the same time. Is Murrays the best place to get a new cap from? I didn't see one on elise parts.

I'll come back with an update on thursday.

Ron

Landrover dealer, £3

At the bottom of the page

http://www.eliseparts.com/shop/index.ph ... 5ba91afb31

robin wrote:Weak expansion tank cap can cause this problem and would be the first thing to change.

The expansion cap doesn't like overheating sessions. When the engine gets overheated like that, I always recommend people to replace the cap.

In fact... I always tell people to change it at least once every four years. It's a mechanism which can break. It's cheap as chips:
http://www.elise-shop.com/index.php?mai ... cts_id=334

Also.. I've seen a couple of rads going because of this. (yeah yeah.. the rad end caps are weak, should be better etc. etc.) If the pressure goes up in the system, something has to pop. If the cap doesn't work, something else will go!

In this case, the pressure cap has done exactly what it's designed for.. control pressure

how can you tell when the fan comes on ?

dont think i have ever heard it ... even when idle.

Park up and let the car idle, when the temp is over 102 or thereabout the fan should start, if you are outside the car you should hear and see it, I usually hear mine inside the car.