Hi all,

A couple of weeks ago I was driving my Escort hard. When I stopped I suddenly smelled something sweet.
After opening the bonnet, I saw that some coolant had came out of the expansion tank. The temperature didn't rise while driving and the coolant level was fine.
The temperature stayed the same on the way home and I went through some gears. Not the brightest move to do because there was lots of smoke when I stopped. More coolant had came out of the expansion tank and onto the exhaust. The temperature still didn't rise on the gauge.

The day after, the oil was looking as it should and the coolant was clean. I've filled up the expansion tank with water to see what was causing this failure. But as soon as the car warmed up, the radiator started spraying.
Therefore I replaced the radiator with a brand new one from Ava Quality Cooling and fitted a new filler cap for the expansion tank. After installing it, I've filled it up with SP12 coolant. A hose started to leak but this was due a bad reïnstall, easy fix.

When driving before, the temperature stayed on 2/5 on the temperature gauge, shy below the middle. It did not made a difference when you drove the car hard, hitting the redline etc, the temperature stayed the same. But now, the temperature stays in the middle when driving normal and when you put your foot down it rises to 3/5 - 4/5 on the gauge. The fan still activates when the temperature gets too high.

What could this be? The thermostate is about 4000 km old so I don't expect that to be the issue.
Ideas and suggestions are more than welcome!

Kind regards,

Cor