And its not even 9am yet!

Well about 6am, just before in fact, I woke up for no real reason and I saw it was frosty outside. It looked different to normal, so I took a pic.

I then couldnt get back to sleep so I went out for a little photography session.

So I drive a good 30 - 40 miles this morning, photographing different things; Angel of the North Millennium bridge playing around with apertures really. Got some good examples of different exposures.

Saw the morning market at the Quayside in Newcastle, next to the Guild hall and then on the way home I decide to put my foot down on the way from some lights, get to about 45 mph (50mph zone) and then I notice a great deal of smoke or steam coming from the back. It makes me worry a bit but if I keep it at low revs it doesnt seem to be so bad and Im not to far from home, so I get home and then I notice its steam and a great deal of it coming from under the bonnet.

I wait about 30 seconds, the steam dies down and find out theres a pipe thats got a tiny little split in thats releasing water when pressure.

So now I want to find a water pipe on a bank holiday weekend from a scrappy and I wanted to take my friend out this afternoon as we usually go for a little drive and walk on a Sunday afternoon.

take a photo of the pipe, i might have one that would do

(theres a load of them here, could cut one down etc..)

Well, I found a scrappy that was open and they were helpful.

Ive gotten a new pipe, well, new I say that knowing its soft from oil contamination and Ive got another one. Both should do, only took me about 2.5 hrs to get them off and £2 for them.

But the split is at the front of the engine bay, but it looks like to get to the pipe, the inlet manifold would have to come off, which I could see as a pain. Inlet manis were already off the scrap yard cars.

But I stopped off at Halfords on the way back and got myself a large bottle of anti freeze and some hose connectors, so I think me and alan should be able to do something sweet with them.
And I can get a new hose next month when I get paid.

Well, as usual Alan has helped me fix the hose so its sorted, for now and should hold but I dont really want to get at the old hose as the inlet manifold would have to be taken off too. But thats a problem for next month asap.

good old alan, woo.

Jaimz

It probably is down to an old hose, but you will need to eliminate the possibility that your cooling system is pressurising too much - from head gasket failure etc

Which pipe was it that split?

the one that goes from the internal heater matrix to where the pipe from the top of the rad meets the engine... it was only a tiny split and right on the (tight) bend

we didnt have the right hose to replace it with, so choped the end off and joined on the end of another hose as a temporery fix

(tho tbh, its one of those things Id call temporery and then forget about...)

Done exactly the same in the 205.

Tho Ive found Euro Car Parts to have most hoses now, just ordered a full set for the Golf, also ordering a new Mk3 Radiator and going to be doing a fair few other bits on the water works on preps for the Summer heat (I hope its hot this year).

ah thats prob ok then - might be a slightly blocked matrix but only time will tell

I just got my pay slip and a pay check from my new company, so when that clears Ill be placing an order for some new hoses for the engine bay and when I can Ill be changing them I think.

How could I check pressurization in the cooling system?

Ive had some good runs and blasted the heater quite a bit and all seems to be holding on the old car.

I love my car, but I do wish I had my Volvo back, wouldnt mind a newer one like the S70 or V90 would be nice.

pressure should be fine tbh.... gave the rad hoses a quick sqeeze when the engine was running and it seamed to be ok.... fair enough its not very technical.... but if it was off by enough to matter id have noticed

if you want a hand changing the hoses just give me a shout.... if you let me know a few days early Ill try to tidy the garage up a bit and bring the diesel heater home from work... will warm it up nice for us :-)

If knightys given the end of your hose a suck and says that its OK I would trust him