Gibbon
Member
Registered: 16th Jul 07
User status: Offline
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For as long as I can remember if my car was left in neutral ticking over then it would start to get hot reletivly quickly.
I was in Birmingham today and bieng Saturday the traffic was shit, I was stopping and starting a load and didnt really get out of 1st gear but then... steam started coming out of the bonnet, I looked down... temp guage on MAX. drove into the car park I was going to and looked under the bonnet and the water was boiling! like actually bubbling. I left it and went into town for around 3 hours and when I came back it was still hot, so I bought some cold water from WHSmith and topped it up 
When I got in my Mom (encouragingly...) started telling me about the time she bought a Rover 200 and the head gasket went after 15000 miles from new!
So, is this a common problem? Or is something much bigger/expensive wrong with my car? (I had the radiator fan belt changed about 1k ago, so Its not that the belt is snapped or anything)
Cheers for any advice 
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Graham88
Member
Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
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Well when I'm stuck in traffic when working in London, if it gets hot I quite often get steam out the bonnet. I think it's the overflow letting water drip out onto the hot engine. I could be wrong.
It takes a while to boil over though. How quickly is 'relatively quickly'?
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IvIarkgraham
Premium Member
Registered: 27th Mar 04
Location: Ellesmere Port, Cheshire
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first mistake you made was to put cold water in a hot engine
you may have cracked the block
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Gibbon
Member
Registered: 16th Jul 07
User status: Offline
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The engine wasn't that hot, so im hoping that isn't the case. I left it for 3-4 hours before I put the water in it :S Hope it hasn't cracked anyway.
I just checked under the oil filler cap and theres some tiny white stuff covering the surface, only in I very small place though and its very faint white.
And I was driving around Brum at snail-speed for about 30mins before it boiled over.
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Dean_W
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Registered: 13th Dec 05
Location: Downham Market, Norfolk
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quote:
Originally posted by Gibbon
I just checked under the oil filler cap and theres some tiny white stuff covering the surface, only in I very small place though and its very faint white.
That could just be condensation.....But, sounds like Eddies not happy.
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Rob E
Member
Registered: 1st Jan 06
Location: Madeley, Stafford....I want to live back in Wales!
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get an anti freeze tester and make sure you have an adequate amount of anti freeze in the cooling system
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nik0789
Member
Registered: 17th Oct 07
Location: Kent
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the white stuff under the oil filler cap, sounds like head gasket m8. mine did it bt as i left it so long the head warped, don't do it! u need to either change the gasket of face 160-£200 to get the head skimmed.
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johnhara1
Member
Registered: 19th Oct 06
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne
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Did the fan not kick in?
Test the fan is working 1st.
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Ellis
Member
Registered: 11th Sep 07
Location: Aberdeenshire
User status: Offline
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Surely fan switch would be a good idea to start with....
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