Basically saturday my car decided to boil itself, the cause, plastic impellor broke up in the waterpump, but i turned it off straight away, and it hasnt been ran for more than 30seconds to a minute whilst it was overheating.

YEs its a ford 2.5 V6 as found in the ST24 etc.

I replaced the thermostat and the waterpump and all was well, did 50 miles and the needle didnt move up further than past the 1/2 mark on the temp guage, sat between the R and M of the NORMAL

Today i decided to give it a blast down a lane on the way to supermarket, it moved a little past the M towards the A (today is hotter day yesterday it pissed down all day and was very mild) got into supermarket and fan was on, so had a look under bonnet and noticed water seeping out of the header tank, so i slowly undid the cap expecting it to erupt but it didnt, it hadnt over heated and once i took the cap off the fan went off, then whilst the cap was off some 2 minutes later, the fan kicked in again and this time it erupted and dumped a good load of water straight out the header tank all over the car park much to 20 - 30 peoples amusement

Turned it off and left it to cool down, did my shopping, came back out was going to top the water up but it was still on between minimum and the max so it hadnt lost a lot considering the amount it spat out, so then i thought maybe id put too much water in it?

So just put the cap back on, drove back, and all the way home, it went from between the halfway mark (R-M) up to between the A-L ,fan going on, off, on off, even when driving, gently around 2500 revs down country lanes, temperature guage is going up and down, also noticed the heaters were going hot, cold, hot, cold

Came home and took the cap off again, let the fan kick in again, and again it erupted all over the driveway, everytime the revs climb, the water in the tank climbs until it spews it everywhere.

Also when i first got back and opened the bonnet it was burping and farting a good en out the header tank, then made a really loud burping noise when i opened the tank cap again before it erupted.

Is this air lock, or is it knackered? I couldnt find a small fragment of the old plastic impellor, could this be causing an issue somewhere?

Just find it odd how it was fine for 40 -50 miles, a 30 mile stint at 70mph down the M1 but now its being a nob again, someone help before i put my foot through the screen

 

Sounds like an air lock to me, But could be a faulty thermostat?

I fitted a faulty one yesterday, It wouldn't open until the car was almost in the red then it stayed open!

That was on a customers Mondeo

 

Well the recovery guy said it was my stat at fault and i couldnt get a new one so had to get another from scrappy from which i was told a good running car that was only there due to MOT failure (rotten) so i might try fitting my old stat back into it.

Does seem like an air lock, and a real bad one at that, never known a car to make such burping and gargling noises that loud before, just hoping it isnt the missing piece of impellor.

Such a wanker to work on these engines aswell! Someone told me to shove a hose in the heater matrix pipe and take the bottom rad hose off and flush it through, see if it reveals the broken piece. Really unsure as to what to do with it now. Im not fussed about the car other than the fact that without it i cannot get to work, im not on a bus route and dont know anyone i work with who lives near me and taxi there is Ł20 each way so thats out the question, got till Wednesday to sort it

Cheers

 

Just topped the water up, ran it up to temperature, boiled over again, rad cold, heaters cold, same problem as when the waterpump went tits up, going to try changing the stat if not could it be the bit of missing impellor jamming something up? Ive just ripped the shitty undertray off and its not under there.

 

Leave the thermostat out and see if it still does it. When it is on warm tickover with the cap removed, are you getting any bubbles coming up through? If so that would suggest head gasket...

 

Tickover the water is pretty still and you can only see the water flowing in and out of the header tank, Its only when you increase the revs it starts bubbling, popping, farting, gurgling, makes some really unusual noises, the higher you rev it the more fierce it bubbles and the louder the noises get, then it spews over, just cant work it out as i did this yesterday when i first fitted the pump, then i let it cool topped it up ran it up again and it was fine, its not overheating though according to the guage, and when you turn it off once its warm it continues to gargle and burp for a minute or two and the water in the header shoots up and down.. really baffled me. Is there any bleed nipples on these anywhere?

Cheers

 

Just changing the stat again. When i seperated the stat (on the car) i was worried i was going to get my hands burnt by the hot water, but to my suprise the water inside the stat housing was cold?

Ive poured water down the end of the stat housing that goes to the rad, its filled up the rad and then obviously raised the water level in the header tank.

Just going to test this stat in hot water and then refit it, if it still doesnt want to play ball, i dont know what to do

 

Changed stat, still doing it, lukewarm rad, cold heaters, and just randomnly boils over as and when it wants to once hot, is headgasket failure complete engine failure on these cause ive heard the oil and water doesnt mix? so how do you diagnose head gasket failure? cause its either that or heater matrix blockage, how on earth i get to the heater matrix and the hoses to that i dont know, my guess is a piece of the impellor is jammed in one of the smaller heater matrix hoses as most of the engine bay ones are quite big in diameter, i reckon its flushed the piece to the back of the engine into one of the heater matrix hoses.. as long as the car doesnt die completely i can live with maintaining the water levels and babysitting it.. :/

 

another update, basically the long and the short of it. its not overheating to dangerous levels, fan kicks in around just after the M, it will go a little past that but never anything off the A on the NORMAL on the guage.,,

What i cant work out is why i cant get no heat from the heaters when its stationary no matter how high i rev it or squeezing hoses etc it just wont have it, whether the engine is cold, warming up, warm, or with the fans going, the heaters stay cold, until you drive it, give it death and then the heaters burst into life for a few minutes but as soon as the engine is driven at slower RPMs then the heaters go cold again.

Seems to be taking water into the header tank, holding it, then randomnly spewing it back out of the header tank..

Does anyone know where the bleed nipples are on these V6 engines? and does anybody know where and how i go about accessing the heater matrix hoses?

Cheers

 

This is why on my V6's, the first thing ive changed is the waterpump, to a metal impellar one. ford were aware of the fault, and did revise the waterpump with a stronger plastic, but i still play it safe, and use a metal impellar pump, for the sake of Ł50, and a half hour job, it gives you peace of mind


Are you getting a ticking sound coming from the engine ?

 

Yeah it ticks from the front bank but has always done that its the manifold gasket as you can smell the fumes when you put your head down near the rad.

I just cant understand it, if its boiling over, surely that means its overheating? but according to the guage, its not, its not lost any power, its not difficult to start and hasnt lost any compression as far as i can see.

Basically you start the car up, it will be fine will heat up slowly and gradually as it should, get up to temperature around the R/M on the NORMAL, water will trickle in and out of the header tank as per normal, then after a few mins of it being on the R/M if you rev it from in the engine bay, the water starts bubbling up in the header tank, the fast you rev the engine, the more it bubbles and then it will boil over, the fan will kick in, water will drop, top it up, fan goes off, fan comes back on few mins later again, water stays where it is, heaters will work fine, put the cap back on the header, go down the road, heaters stay warm for a bit, then go cold, pull over, and its pressurised again, take the tank cap off and it erupts everywhere. and thats what it does, everytime, ive worked on it for 6 hours, ive tried flushing what i can through, tried bleeding it, squeezing hoses etc, wont have it, i think the heater matrix or one of the heater matrix pipes are blocked with a piece of the impellor as when its drive hard it seems to manage to push the water past the blockage so the generates heat inside the car..

Quite how i havent thrown a hammer through the screen yet, i do not know.. normally i get stressed out at the first hurdle but it hasnt bothered me, its still running and driving as normal i think thats why, just keeps randomnly boiling over and the heaters going hot/cold/hot/cold as ive said.. :/

cheers

 

mine ticks from the front bank aswel, ive done every headgasket check known to man, it doesnt use a drop of water, a tiny bit of oil, and its done it for the last 10k miles, in which time its had some greif, so i know mine is my front EMG

as for yours. i dont know mate. id drop all the water out of it, remove all the pipes, check to see if any or blocked, or if there is a bit of impellar stuck, then flush it out, and see where your at then.

 

i would say uve got a blockage in your heater matrix take it out and flush it and are you bleeding the system with the heaters on

 

have you tried taking out your thermostat ? and just putting the housing back on ?

 

Taking the thermostat out is what ive been advised to do and will do tommorow seeing as ive smashed most of the plastic trims that were in the way out the way (undertray etc) i can take the stat out in 2 mins tops.

Basically when its cold the water level in the tank drops, as it warms the water level rises, add revs to the situation and you get a mini eruption of boiling water.. the car makes a load of burping, farting, groaning, creaking cracking noises for the first 2 minutes after its been switched off really does sound like air lock and a major one at that..

As for taking hoses off, i can take the ones off the rad, the waterpump, the stat housing, and a few in around the front/side of the engine but the ones at the back seem impossible to get out with taking the inlets off ?

Yeah ive been bleeding it with the cap off and the heaters on full on hot, didnt work.

Also been told the pressure from when the pump failed could have knackered the header tank cap?

 

Could well be the cap at fault as they have a pressure valve built into them. If it isn't holding correct pressure, coolant will boil and overflow. Could be worth replacing it just to remove it from the equation.

 

Well i know how to make it behave itself its simple.

Dont rag it.



Seriously, i drove about 20 miles today down some windy back roads, sat in traffic and all sorts, for about 8 miles going to a hospital appointment and it sat bang in the middle of the temp guage, between the R and the M and for the whole journey the fan didnt come on once, arrived at my destination, fan wasn't on, no nasty noises, overflowing or hissing. Heaters stayed hot all the way there and back, all was well, until the road before my street and my street, i gassed it, gave it some stick through the gears, pulled up outside mine, it hadnt boiled over, but the fan was going, and it was hissing and popping/farting like a goodun... and it had moved to 3/4 mark on the guage nearing the A/L mark, and the heaters were stone cold... anything about 2500/3000 revs upsets it..

Baffles me this car does. It really does. I was going to take the stat out this morning and get a new cap but didnt have time.

 

Sell it

 

Its not really sell'able, its my runaround, that got keyed, which i then painted myself, which looked half ok, untill the second tin of paint i got wasnt the same as the first and its kind of got the two tone rat look paint job and the spare wheel well is rotten, sills are rotten and it wont go through another MOT so when i move in 2 months im getting a garage so will probably break it up, Got some nice wheels and lights and that on it.

 

I have a 2.0 tdci estate. I live in central europe. Now in the summer I have to watch the temp gauge going up hills on the motorway. The temp gauge usually sits halfway on the flat and up hills.

But if the outside temp is 30+, and I'm doing 80mph or a bit more (it's legal here) and I'm going up a hill, the gauge almost hits the red. When I slow down to about 60, it goes back to halfway.

Winter, when its -20, still sits at halfway going up a hill and lower on the flat and going down.

Local mechanic says the thermostat is ok. Water pump, I don't know