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Beware coincidence Posted by Ari [Email]  (#2847) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Ari) on Thu, 17 May 2001 09:03:00
In Reply to: Source of overheating located...., Mr. SCience, Wed, 16 May 2001 23:00:10 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Low coolant levels will cause a car to run hotter, simply because if you have less coolant, you have more air. And from yesterday's conversation, air makes for a lousy conductor of heat. The water pump is less efficient, because air compresses but fluid doesn't.
However, if you had a decent coolant level before and the engine was running hot, I wouldn't assume that this leak caused your previous overheating. It might be the other way around - a hot engine runs higher coolant pressures, and that will stress hoses and clamps, causing them to fail. So I would assume that either the overheating caused this failure, or it's just plain coincidence. We all like to assume that there is only one problem, and that it shows up in different ways. In my years of troubleshooting, that assumption is usually bad.
What exactly failed? Did the elbow hose split, or is it a leak at the clamp? Clamps can leak intermittently - They don't leak when the engine is cold and there is no pressure. Start the car, and the pressure comes up and they leak. As the coolant heats up, parts expand, and that presses the hose against the clamp and the leak stops. When you shut off the car, the pressure drops faster than the contraction from cooling, so you may or may not leak on cool-down. But you only see a leak in a short period of time as the car is warming up. Since this is usually when you're driving down the road, you don't see a puddle. Just an example, but one common intermittent leak I've seen.
, Thu, 17 May 2001 09:03:00 <-- Viewing This Message
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