Do I fear the worst???

mongoose100 · Unread post by **mongoose100** » 18 May 2011, 08:31

Brought a ZX TD today, was going really well the whole 500km trip home, no overheating etc...

Once I arrived home, I decided to check over all fluids etc, noticed during the trip that the heater was rather weak. ANYWAY, the cooling system was under one hell of a lot of pressure, cracked the bleed points slightly and was greeted with a rush of air

Now I've tried bleeding it out with a header tank etc, however, when I start her up, 2 mins later the hoses feel solid and there is plenty of air to be bled again!!! repeated this several times, same result.

Starts and runs fine, doesn't sound low on compression either.

Gasket or head??? Hopefully neither!

lexi · Unread post by **lexi** » 18 May 2011, 10:31

Bleed again flush out system and change out rad cap. Then think about the head.

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 18 May 2011, 15:00

Hmmmm IF and IF theres no loss of water, then Id leave it for now..

HOWEVER, I had this on a Xantia TD.. Crap heater lots of pressure. NO loss of water at all...

The top hose got quite hard with pressure, so I plumped for a gasket change, however, I still had the same result after that.

The heater improoved, but still loads of pressure. I eventually sold her like that, declearing the pressure in the system, but the buyer said he was happy, sometimes some do run like that.

I can only put it down to a hairline crack in the head giving out slightly..

Paul

mongoose100 · Unread post by **mongoose100** » 18 May 2011, 21:14

It's not losing heaps of water but it is blowing a bit out just after startup, hoping that it is just the fact that its over filled

Chlorate · Unread post by **Chlorate** » 18 May 2011, 21:53

To be brutally honest...

Given it's an XUD engine and their tendency to chew through their head gaskets if the coolant has been neglected:

I would say expect the worst.

It probably won't start overheating for quite some time; but the temperature gauge on the dashboard reads radiator temperature, not cylinder head temperature.

By the time it does start reading overheats, it's when you're losing coolant very quickly i.e. whatever has failed, has failed more.

It'll probably run fine for a good while, so long as it doesn't lose too much coolant. But it's better to bite the bullet now and get the head off and fix it than to drive it until the head needs replacing - and they're getting quite expensive nowadays.

My car was exactly the same when I bought it, you may find that the head has already been off and someone has tried to bodge it to pass it on.

-Alex