hello all...
I've been going at this issue for a number of days now, check various sites etc, but am still having same problem.
Car: 1997 VW Cabrio, the heater core has packed in twice and it looks like I may have to do it again, but for now I've coupled the two heater core hoses together and will deal with that later.
However, my main issue is the car is overheating and pushing coolant out of the expansion tank. I have replaced the water pump and thermostat, flushed the radiator and flushed the block as best I could injecting water through top hose and letting water out through thermostat housing prior to placing new thermostat in. I've just bought a new expansion cap for the expansion tank and I am still having issues. Further more, I have tested the cooling fans and they work using a paper clip, however while I have been conducting tests, the fans have never come on. The car starts fine, sounds normal and no lack of power, there is no water in the oil. Not sure what else I can check/test.
Any thoughts ?

Thanks.

Geo.

 

Welcome to the forum.

Well if you've done all those checks and its still loosing water it sounds like your cylinder head gasket may have gone. Now there are checks you could do to diagnose this but that means buying more kit Combustion Leak Detector but its a bit expensive for a one off test.

 

Hi Keith,
Already tried one of those, cabrio belongs to my girlfriend and her brother had one of those testers. I used it and there was no color change to the test fluid, so I am assuming that the head past that test. I did notice what looks like brownish gunge, not a lot inside the top of the expansion tank around the bottom of the bowl. Only other thing I can think of is that I have a trapped air pocket on the engine side of the thermostat, so before I start pulling more parts off, I will take the new thermostat out and bolt everything back and see what happens. At least it will eliminate something else out of the equation.