Overheating & Loosing water issues

[kali]

Hey,
New to this forum, found it by searching google for problems with my saxo..

I brought my Saxo in April this year and have had no end of problems with it :(

This might be a bit long winded, so I appologise but I want to make sure I get everything down.

My main problem at the moment is: about a month ago I had to get a new radiator, all was going well until the weekend.. Warning light came on, fan kicked in, wanring light went off.. No problem there.. Then on monday I had to be towed off the M5 because there was steam pouring out the bonnet. When AA checked it there was no water in the radiator. He topped it up followed me to work and all was ok.. This morning I checked it and there was no water in it.. This was about 7:40am.. Took son to nursery and went off to work, dorve approx 18miles, Checked it again at 1:40pm and there was no water in it.. The car had been sat in car park from 8:15am..
Topped it up again and took it to a garage, who couldnt find anything immeadiatly wrong with it but told me to keep an eye on it.. Got home tonight and the water level is where it was when I topped it up this afternoon..

Id really like some advice on this.. Im female and no nothing about cars LOL!!

Hope someone got to the end of the post :)

Thanks
Kali

[saxochap]

hi kali and welcome to the site.

firstly you should check all the black rubber hoses leading to the radiator and thermostat to check they arn't leaking water.

secondly ask your local garage to perform a compression test to check for head gasket failure.

to check for head gasket failure your self check the oil and see what colour it is if its brown/black then there in no water in the oil systems.

if is creme then there is water in the oil system which would indicate head gasket, although this does not always happen.

if you can check the water in your radiator to see the colour of that. also there is a small chance that the radiator has a hole.

if you can't find anything wrong take it to a diffrent garage and ask them, they might pick up on something the other garage missed,

hope this helps,


chris

saxochap

[kali]

Hey saxochap, thanks for the welcome and the reply :)

Well so far.. have not lost any water since tuesday night. Havent checked it since being at work today but will do in a bit..

[fossie]

Did you bleed the system properly when the rad was fitted.........

[kali]

Im guessing the garage did..

Radiator is only a few weeks old, and AA did a pressure test thing on monday morning and couldnt find any leaks.. :(

Im a bit thick when it comes to cars, but on Monday it was bloody cold and I had my heater going full blast, sat in traffic jam, it over heated..
TUesday morning had my heater on as it was again bloody cold, and tuesday lunch time no water left..
Wednesday morning, no heater on, was bloody cold but wanted to try summit, got to work, water left in radiator...

Someone told me it could be leaking through heater, or summit, but the car inside would possibly be damp, but its bone dry inside..

Could it be a heater problem?

And if you made sense of that then well done.. LOL!!

Kali

P.S i really appreciate the help :)

[saxochap]

hi,

it could be leaking through the heater matrix, but if it was the inside of the car would most likely to be damp/wet.

iam not sure if the heater matrix would show up on the pressure test the aa did.

also could still be possible headgasket, check your oil and tell us what colour it is.

good luck,

saxochap

chris

[R4T]

heater matrix wont show up on the pressure test,but if it was the heater matrix the inside of your car would be damp!! what i would do is bleed the system again,put in some new water and anti freeze,run the car for 5mins stand and watch below the car to see if anything leaks out,if not its possible the cylinder head is bust,let us know how you get on

[kali]

Hey guys thanks for the replies, will keep you updated..

So far I have not lost any water since Wednesday morning...

Will be taking it to a garage in a couple of weeks.. Cant really get time off work at the moment :( So just hoping im not doing any damage..

Thanks again :)