Help with astra prob

Bartonprince

Hi,

I have a 93 astra saloon. 1.4GLX.

I was driving it home last night and when i parked. There was a hissing noise coming what sound like from the left front side of the car (when you are facing the car from the outside). There was a lot steam coming off the bonnet and from under the left side of the hood.

I left it a while, and when i opened the bonnet there was no visible steam.
When i felt the main block (with the oil cap on it) it was kinda of hot.

Is it the radiator?

If so, how do i fill it up with water.

Cheers.

Bartonprince

In other words, which one is the water bottle for the rad.

Cheers

Bartonprince

Anyone? It's pretty important. If my car blows up while i'm driving!!!!

fletch

Sounds like your car is overheating alright.....just top her up with some water or flush the coolant system and replace with some new coolant/anti-freeze if you're not sure when's the last time it was done.
If you're sittin in traffic, another good trick to keep the engine cool is to turn on your interior heater on full blast and open the windows(if you don't want to cook)

Stephen

I'd doubt its just water it uses, most likely you will need some kind of coolant fluid. Dunno where you'd access it from, but in most cars, most owner-serviceable bits have yellow caps/plugs etc.

Bartonprince

Ok well about 5-6 weeks ago i had an apprentice mechanic topup the oil in the gasket thing, he changed the brake fluid, he put water in the whipers pot.
I don't think we filled up the water in the big kinda see though container.

fletch

Bartonprince wrote:

Ok well about 5-6 weeks ago i had an apprentice mechanic topup the oil in the gasket thing, he changed the brake fluid, he put water in the whipers pot.
I don't think we filled up the water in the big kinda see though container.

lol....might be an idea to top it up so....I'd be surprised if the apprentice didn't though cause it's kinda one of those fundamental things to check

Bartonprince

he did check it and it was half full. i've done about 200km since. Is it the big see through one with a black lid?

BrianD3

Coolant reservoir is probably clear/white plastic. The brake fluid reservoir will be a small, flattish container. The coolant one will be bigger and is probably a round tank with some rubber hoses coming out of it. Be careful opening the cap if the engine is hot as it may be pressurised and hot coolant could shoot out. Top it up with a mix of antifreeze and distilled water. Plain water will do in an emergency.

Don't add a large quantity of cold water to a roasting hot engine.

If the car is overheating and using coolant it really needs looking at by a mechanic.

Bartonprince

jasus i don't know. when i open the bonnet, there is a rather large resevoir looking thing up at the back on the passenger side. WHen itake the cap off now nothing happens, I did it before and it made a hissing noise.

Is that the one?
I have no coolant so i'm gonna have to hit tesco and fire some in.

ibanez

Bartonprince wrote:

jasus i don't know. when i open the bonnet, there is a rather large resevoir looking thing up at the back on the passenger side. WHen itake the cap off now nothing happens, I did it before and it made a hissing noise.

Is that the one?
I have no coolant so i'm gonna have to hit tesco and fire some in.

That's the one,usually has a yellow or black cap.The reservoir is located at the back of the engine bay on the passenger side,you will need a 50/50 mixture of antifreeze and water.

Bartonprince

ibanez wrote:

That's the one,usually has a yellow or black cap.The reservoir is located at the back of the engine bay on the passenger side,you will need a 50/50 mixture of antifreeze and water.

Ok that was completely empty.

I filled it about haf way with water as an emergency measure, and drove to work fine this morning. I'm getting a mech to pressure test the head gasket or something today, and he'll fill it up again with antifreeze.

Horrible thought though. He did this 200km's ago....

Bartonprince

Ok the problem is this.

I filled the resevoir up. Drove about 8km handy. Looked the next day, and it was empty again. Spotted a small leak at the end of the tube leading to the radiator, and the hissing noise seems to be the water leaking onto the radiator.

We did a test on the resevoir when we filled it. Put some block tester fluid in a tube and used the suction thing, after squeezinf for a few seconds the blue fluid started turning green, then a darker colour.

What dya think?