Well, this has been a fun day! Went on a trip out for a walk around Arnside (about 40 miles from our house and about 2/3'rs of the way there the heaters went cold and the engine temp began to shoot up and we began to lose engine power.
I pulled over into a layby and popped the bonnet to see that the expansion tank was full to overflowing. Once the excess coolant had drained away (seemed too be a lot of air in there too) the heaters kicked back in and the temp went back to normal. Also to note was the top hose was warm/hot yet the contents of the expansion tank were quite cool in comparison.
By the time we got back to Arnside we were back at the same problem. Thankfully we had some water in the car and could top up the missing coolant.
This happened twice on the way back too (we had to follow the A6 all the way home).
Two other weird 'symptoms' we noticed are a rapid 'pock-pock-pock' noise coming from somewhere in the front left of the engine and a rattling noise like a small stone rolling from left to right (pass to drv) in the top of the dash shortly before the heaters kick back in (when the temp is near the red).
Now, this could be caused by a replacement water pump I had fitted last month (QH part) which may have left an air lock in the system when the garage refilled the system and I doubt it is the cylinder head as I had a new gasket, skim and pressure test in last summer.
I'll get it in the garage next week as I'm pretty sure the pump they fitted is not behaving and will be be covered by them (and they can do some free fault finding whilst they diagnose the problem!).
Any other thoughts as to what this problem could be would be greatly received!
I pulled over into a layby and popped the bonnet to see that the expansion tank was full to overflowing. Once the excess coolant had drained away (seemed too be a lot of air in there too) the heaters kicked back in and the temp went back to normal. Also to note was the top hose was warm/hot yet the contents of the expansion tank were quite cool in comparison.
By the time we got back to Arnside we were back at the same problem. Thankfully we had some water in the car and could top up the missing coolant.
This happened twice on the way back too (we had to follow the A6 all the way home).
Two other weird 'symptoms' we noticed are a rapid 'pock-pock-pock' noise coming from somewhere in the front left of the engine and a rattling noise like a small stone rolling from left to right (pass to drv) in the top of the dash shortly before the heaters kick back in (when the temp is near the red).
Now, this could be caused by a replacement water pump I had fitted last month (QH part) which may have left an air lock in the system when the garage refilled the system and I doubt it is the cylinder head as I had a new gasket, skim and pressure test in last summer.
I'll get it in the garage next week as I'm pretty sure the pump they fitted is not behaving and will be be covered by them (and they can do some free fault finding whilst they diagnose the problem!).
Any other thoughts as to what this problem could be would be greatly received!