Coolant bleed if you only have 2 'gophers'?

[agentdagnamit]

I stupidly drove several miles after forgetting to put the pressure cap back on my coolant header tank and boiled the anti-freeze. Hopefully I havent damaged the head etc. Luckily the cap was wedged behind the leisure battery, so that's something.

I just watched the 3 part video on how to bleed the coolant system and will give it a go this evening. Couple of questions:

1. How do you do this if there are only 2 of you? I dont think I can recruit a 3rd helper in the next few days
2. The youtube video says there are other methods of doing this, anyone know where I can find instructions for these?

Watching this on youtube has convinced me that there is no way that my local garage is doing this correctly (they recently replaced the radiator), I cant imaging them devoting 3 mechanics over 40 minutes to do this. How dangerous is it to just top up at the header tank, warm the engine, top up, repeat etc?

thanks

[westonwarrior]

I did it on my own

I hooked the bleed tube into a 5 litre container and wedged it up then reved it as per instructions stopping now and then to check the header tank
I wedged it so I could see the container and winged it, that was from a drain and refill and the amount of air that came out when the stat opened was amazing.

Did the header tank completely empty if not just top upif it did or you are not sure best to do a full bleed.

[longhaul8]

you can also have a look on here.

http://mazdabongo.wikispaces.com/ And there is a fact sheet in the members area.

[haydn callow]

Three people were used in the vidio so we could explain it better and to make filming simpler.

You can do it with 2 very well and as said above one person can manage it but need to know what they are doing

2 of you will be fine

[Simon Jones]

If your local garage changed the radiator, then they must know how to bleed it (you would hope). Any garage that does not know at least one of the methods for bleeding should not be allowed anywhere the cooling system. It's worth printing out the factsheet and also pointing them to the video so they can't say they didn't know.

[321Away]

I've seen quite a few cars recovered by AA/RAC, with note saying headgasket, failed sniffer test, that just needed bleeding, problem with most garages is they've never come across a cooling system so awkward,(unless they're old school and ran into 1 of the old BMW's) even with experience sometimes you have to walk away and come back later,some bongo's are a nightmare lol they just wont bleed til they want to thats what i tell myself anyway

Julian

[agentdagnamit]

Thanks everyone.

The bleed hose looked like it hadnt had much use, so I suspect the coolant was just topped up via the header tank by the garage. I guess I need to ask them. Might use ADS in Bristol next time.

Sorry for the extra questions when I realise I've been an idiot, but this is how our 2 person first time attempt at bleeding went yesterday. Who reckons this will be sufficient....?

1.Basically followed the first video to see saw with the engine off. I struggled to find a large funnel that was the right size and had to duct tape it on to the end of the bleed hose.

2.Turned on the engine and ran until the coolant began to get uncomfortably hot, and started to destroy my duct tape / funnel construction, so see-sawed as long as I could before putting the bung back in. The radiator HAD NOT OPENED at this point, but bubbles had pretty much stopped. the video says you've wasted your time by finishing before the thermostat kicks in....

3. Reved the engine until the Radiator opened and topped up the header as the level dropped fairly rapidly. Ran for a bit longer, check the header level and put the cap back on.

In my favour, I reckon this is more than my garage probably did, but is it enough? I'm thinking of getting the heating gauge modified as I've already had one £2k bill for the head and would have to write off our van (aka Ivor) if this happened again.

thanks!

[haydn callow]

I would "strongly" advise yo to buy a funnel and do it again.....when you had to top it up 'cos the level dropped air could well have moved from the bottom hose to the cylinder head.

[chipvan]

If your local garage changed the radiator, then they must know how to bleed it (you would hope). Any garage that does not know at least one of the methods for bleeding should not be allowed anywhere the cooling system. It's worth printing out the factsheet and also pointing them to the video so they can't say they didn't know.

Ive used a bongo garage who didnt have a clue how to bleed it!...

now its with one that does

[agentdagnamit]

Sorry to do this to death. Good news is that my local garage is aware of the existance of the bleed tube, so that's good news.

Westonwarrior - does the bleed tube and bucket need to be held up above the height of the header tank to do it this way, or can I put a bucket on the floor by the passenger door and feed the bleed hose downwards into it? That would certainly be much easier to do with one person....

This is how my garage said they bleed Bongos, and they service plenty. Apparently I should keep runnig coolant through the system, presumably reusing what empties in to the bucket, until no more air escapes from the bleed hose. They suggested that I then carry on for at least another 5 minutes to make sure there is a constant flow of coolant from the hose, and no air. Obviously the engine needs to be up to running temperature and the stat open with heaters turned on.

I cant get a garage to do this for me until next week and want to use the van over the weekend (although the constant revving of my engine is going to start irritating my neighbours pretty soon)

I thought that Hope mountain bike brakes were tough to bleed until I got involved in this mess....