[flintoff99]

Right guys I need some advice

Took car to indep bmw specialist.

Changed coolant drove 5 miles down the road. Car over heated.
Called garage turned out they hadnt closed the high pressure cap and the coolant just went

So they waited an hour used warm water and coolant to fill up max level on tank.

I drove off about 30 miles no problem kept checking amount of coolant always on max.

then left my car for three hours and the coolant has dropped down to mid way.

Drove my car another 10 miles and the coolant has dropped to minimum.


I'm concerned that I will have woken up tomorrow and all the coolant will have leaked out and I have none to replace it with to drive to mini garage.

Also the mini garage wont be able to fit me in on a sat morning will they be able to fit me in.

Do they offer a courtsey car while i leave it for a few years

52 reg and had for one week

not good

[specky001]

Defor sounds like u got a leak, maybe you should check under ur car, and put summat there to catch it, and put it in tomoro morning just toget you to mini garage, they should sort you out with a motor to run around in for the weekend i should think whilst they sort it out.

it prob isnt a leak (fault) but something else theyve forgotten to put back, a hoseclip or summat not tight, maybe i dont know,

[flintoff99]

ive checked it this morning and there is no coolant in it.

so i wont be driving it anyway

[bob corbishley]

I was going to suggest that an airlock could be to blame.... I would've topped it up, measured and logged the quantities and see how it goes over the next couple of days. Normally though you'll blow out all the bubbles within a couple of miles and it shouldn't need any further attention. Sounds marginal

[flintoff99]

I watched him bleed it out.
seemed ok.

i havent got any anti freeze to top it up with.

should it be pink?


Should the coolant level go from max to nothing in 12 hours?

[flintoff99]

would the cap being left off have blown or caused a leak somewhere in the system?

[bob corbishley]

Use pink longlife coolant, it'll probably mention OAT (organic acid technology) on the bottle. Sometimes it comes neat and you have to water it down 50/50 with water. The neat stuff will look more purply.

Leaving the cap off will prevent the system generating any pressure at all so it wont pop anything off. The lack of pressure will lead to a reduced boiling point so over time you'd loose coolant through evaporation but as soon as the cap is back on this should stop. There are some other side effects by leaving the cap off but these again are long term and wont have had any effect during normal low temp drving.

Good luck, hope you get it sorted satisfactorily!

BC (cheers for the pm too)

[flintoff99]

i notice the hose to the expansion tank has no clip on it.

Wonder if thats a problem?