The story begins a fortnight ago when I (Hadyns alarm actually) noticed that the coolant level was low. I topped up with water, being what I had available, & drove half an hour to my mothers house. Checking under the drivers seat I found the top hose to be ballooning & dripping coolant. I drove the 100 miles home with a careful eye on the temperature gauge...
New hoses & a radiator were ordered - the radiator just because it seemed sensible to take the opportunity to put a nice clean unobstructed one in - and a slot at the local garage booked, due to lack of time, light & the foul weather forecast. The garage is one that I've used for a few things over the last 3 years & I've always been happy with their attitude and the fact that you deal with mechanics & not reception staff.
Having dropped the Bongo off this morning I called in during the afternoon to check on progress. The mechanic (not one I'd seen around before) was in the process of bleeding the system, using the factory procedure - he quoted the procedure, so I assumed that he was following it
He then announced that my head gasket had gone & that this was why the hose had ballooned. Plausible enough, but he then pointed out the oil on the side of the engine as evidence. This has been there since I got the vehicle & I'm pretty certain is mainly, if not all, from the ECU. He then said that he'd found traces of oil in the top hose.Andy at AVA wasn't convinced, when I phoned him to order the gold-plated gasket set & suggested that it was possible that the oil could come from gearbox oil, if there had been any leak into the radiator at that point. He suggested that it would be as well to keep an eye on things for the time being before investing in all the head work. Seems good advice to me.
Now.... When I collected the Bongo, the coolant alarm went into overdrive as soon as I turned the ignition on
Thank you Hadyn, I honestly wouldn't have thought to check the tank after the garage signed it off. The tank was virtually dry. Drawing the mechanics attention to this, he told me to bring the Bongo inside & he'd top it up. I had some misgivings about the risk of gererating an airlock, but it was 5 to 5, so did as he asked. He topped the system up & I ran the engine until it was reasonably well warmed up. He was happy with that. I wasn't, but I took it for a good run getting the engine fully up to temperature ( 1o'clock - Mason Gauge fitted) with both heaters on. Everything seems ok & I'm sitting at work waiting for the system to cool down, so that I can check the coolant level before I go home -nowhere level to park at home!Given the mechanics total lack of concern about the tank being virtually empty & the potential for airlocks, I'm forced to question the rest of his diagnosis. However, if coolant is being lost due to a failed head gasket pressurising the system, then I'm guessing that Hadyn's alarm won't give me a warning until the system has cooled & the level dropped
Presumably the loss of coolant will lead to a rise in engine temperature, which I'd hope that the Mason alarm would give me sufficient warning of ,to prevent major damage This mostly guesswork on my part, so I'd appreciate the thoughts of those with experience in this
Like you, I'm suspicious as there's no reason the gasket would go unless the engine overheated.
Of course it could also mean that he skimps & doesn't do a thorough job......
. The tank was still warm & when I removed the cap & shone the torch in there seemed to be some tiny bubbles swirling around in the coolant. Would this be normal 
Pete
), the reservoir was almost certainly empty. I topped the system up & finished the bleeding process. Temperature gauge behaving fine, heaters blowing nice hot air & I am left with the same amount of coolant left over as the extra that I added, if you follow me, so hopefully no air in the system. Or the same amount of air that I started with, of course. 