Gutted

[Clan]

Originally Posted by jor

Would it be worth trying Evans coolant?
Boiling point a few hundred degrees so should not pressurize the system, is quite expensive if the leakage continues though..

jor

No on the Evans, have you read all the negative things about it ? apart from it being an extortionate price and you have to pay an extortionate price for the pre treatment .. also if your engine is overheating and allowed to go up to 180C with no steam showing your engine will be scrap metal ..The engine is not designed to run at 180 c . Another thing , water is a far better remover of heat than Evans waterless coolant ..

[concrete]

One of the bonuses of driving like an old fart is that the average mpg is over 44 and still climbing and strangely, it’s not taking any longer to get to my various destinations.

670 miles since the last bleed and still no major loss of coolant.

[abdiel]

Long may it be so!

[LankyTim]

Surely a good used engine from a breaker will come to much less than £1500 fitted?

[Sotosound]

I can't see a gasket issue going away just because you bled the cooling system.

If a head gasket leak or a leak from a cracked block or similar were the cause then it would be back with a vengeance straight away.

Instead, it looks like a straightforward (Straightforward? LOL!) cooling system issue.

When I had a similar issue with my old Ford Zephyr V4 41 years ago, including the coolant bottle exploding on the motorway, I eventually tracked it down to a blocked water channel wherein a copper reinforcement on the inlet manifold gasket had slid out of place and blocked the channel when I fitted the gasket.

The price for that was a new gasket and a bottle of elbow grease.

[concrete]

Originally Posted by Sotosound

I can't see a gasket issue going away just because you bled the cooling system.

If a head gasket leak or a leak from a cracked block or similar were the cause then it would be back with a vengeance straight away.

Instead, it looks like a straightforward (Straightforward? LOL!) cooling system issue.

When I had a similar issue with my old Ford Zephyr V4 41 years ago, including the coolant bottle exploding on the motorway, I eventually tracked it down to a blocked water channel wherein a copper reinforcement on the inlet manifold gasket had slid out of place and blocked the channel when I fitted the gasket.

The price for that was a new gasket and a bottle of elbow grease.

I don’t think for one minute that it’s cured. If I can get a few hundred miles after bleeding it, I’m happy. My knowledge of all things cars is minimal and I don’t like to keep going to my mechanic telling him about stuff I’ve read online about what the problem could be.

It’s very obvious there’s guys on here who know their stuff, but I feel I’m telling him his job and nobody likes that.

Other mechanics I know keep telling me to pour steel seal into my cooling system, but I’m flatly refusing to do that. For the time being I’ll nurse the car along until I can happily afford an XC 60. At least that’s the current plan.

[Sotosound]

It's a shame that you don't have access to a local Volvo specialist. They're handy for this kind of thing.

[concrete]

Thought I’d give an update, if anyone is interested. I’ve put a further 3000 odd miles on the car and have to bleed it every thousand miles or so. I’ve gone through about three mug fulls of coolant in that time. The system slowly pressurises and when coolant starts appearing around the top of the expansion bottle, I bleed the system. The car still runs like a dream and fingers crossed it will carry on doing so for a couple more years.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by concrete

Thought I’d give an update, if anyone is interested. I’ve put a further 3000 odd miles on the car and have to bleed it every thousand miles or so. I’ve gone through about three mug fulls of coolant in that time. The system slowly pressurises and when coolant starts appearing around the top of the expansion bottle, I bleed the system. The car still runs like a dream and fingers crossed it will carry on doing so for a couple more years.

if it is the head gasket you might get away with just replacing it , however if you ignore it , the gasses leaking out will erode the head and top of the liner making the engine irreparable .
In any case it will be cheaper to find a similar engine for a few £100 and fit that ..

[concrete]

Originally Posted by Clan

if it is the head gasket you might get away with just replacing it , however if you ignore it , the gasses leaking out will erode the head and top of the liner making the engine irreparable .
In any case it will be cheaper to find a similar engine for a few £100 and fit that ..

I understand where you’re coming from, but in effect I’ve written the car off value wise. It’s old and has 165,000 on the clock and I’m going to run it until it goes bang. If that’s sooner than when my finances allow me to get the car I want, I’ll just buy a cheap runaround and bin that when the time comes.

Certainly uncertain times where car buying is concerned, I think diesels will be demonised even more than they are now and it’ll be hard to know what to spend my money on. Hopefully I’ll get a bit longer to see if the choices improve.