Coolant system bleed

[saintjamesy89]

Hello all,

I've just fixed my water leak! Hooray! Well, hopefully, it's very rainy outside so cannot see if it's still leaking or not. I had to take the hose off that bolts to the front of the stat housing, and it was the seal around the stat that was imperfect, so that had to come out too. Question is, quite a lot of water came out, and I had to top it all up by several litres (maybe 3/4?) of water + antifreeze. Do I need to bleed the system? I ran it at fast idle until the water level dropped in the expansion tank (guess stat opening) so topped it up, waited further until the fan came on (yes, just one - should they both work?) and it went off after 10 seconds or so. I would have bled the system, but I couldn't see any bleed points, unlike the GT that has several on the radiator/hoses.

Thanks.

[citsncycles]

I would bleed it just to be safe. Bleed points seem to vary between the engines but on Timex there's one on the radiatior on the passenger side and one at the front of the thermostat housing near the top, which on Timex at least looks like a nut welded to a piece of stud.

[Mothman]

Bleeding an n/a diesel isnt the same as a TD Mike.
I havnt bled my TZD yet but Malcolm has and i believe he did zackly as Tom did.
However, there is a bleed screw on the rhs of the rad at the top as you face the engine, might be worth undoing this when bleeding.
Is there a sticky on bleeding turbos?


Andy

[saintjamesy89]

The only bleed-look-a-like thing I could see on the radiator was on the passenger side, it was a round black plug with a top like a flat bladed screwdriver - it turned 90 degrees but didn't seem to do much else - and I didn't want to force it out incase it broke.

[Mothman]

Thats the one Tom,
it will undo but dont force it.

Andy

[Defender110]

I think you will find it is now fine now you have topped it up and after it has been running and the water has settled. The bleed screw should ideally be opened whilst filling to aid coolant routing but will be fine and if you open it now you will find instant coolant. Just double check your heater is blowing warm air.

[Dollywobbler]

A good way is to 'burp' all the hoses - including the heater ones (hope you had it set to hot when you refilled). This tends to force any air out but you need to keep checking the level as you do so. Ideally, the engine should be running so you need to be very wary of things like the pump belt etc.

[saintjamesy89]

I did burp the hoses, and the heater works (was cold this morning at half 5) but I don't think the heater was on hot when I filled her up - will double check tomorrow but I have been checking it these last few days and it is still slightly above the join between the upper half and lower of the expansion bottle (I guess this line/join is from when they were moulded and joined?). It still leaks, albeit much much less, and the remaining leak is from behind the engine somewhere, so the bulkhead side. Think it's still dripping oil too, but difficult to tell as the water leak is washing all the crud off the engine!

[Mothman]

Hi Tom,
is there a hiss when you remove the rad cap off the expansion tank when cold? Hope not, and i hope its not a lot of frothy bubbles. If so the head gasket has blown.

Andy

[saintjamesy89]

Not when cold Andy, and no bubbling either. Oil looks nice and when I was filling it all back up a nice healthy jet of water could be seen in the expansion bottle at high idle. The evidence of a leak on the floor has gone from a puddle, to a pound coin sized leak so not hugely worried right now. It would be nice to have a 'dry' BX, but it still leaks all three fluids... (albeit much less so that when I first got it)