Broke down this morning! :(

Lent the golf to my brother in Law this morning as his car is in the garage getting a new exhuast, he set off to work, no problem, get a couple of miles down the road and … Bang!

Pulled over, lifted the bonnet only to find a pipe total blown in half and a brown coloured liquard all over the place and p*ssing onto the road….

Not wanting to do any more damage, i towed it to a local garge I use, the guy lifted the bonnent and his reaction to the state of the pipe is one I wont post…. It is a pipe that goes from the engine into the radiator… now me not been very mechaniclly minded assume this is the radiatior pipe?

He told me that he thinks it must have frozen overnight (not in the garage as usual) and due to the weather then when it was started up, expanded causing it to blow the pipe?

He said the pipe will be about ?20 plus labour and abit antifreeze…. That sound about right? :dontknow:

Only things I have done myself under the bonnet are change the air filter and topped up the oil. They wont be anything to do with it will they?  :?

I have tried to put an arrow on the picture below showing which pipe it is.

the liquid was water. it will freeze if it doesn't have antifreeze in it which by the colour of the water it didn't or not enough anyway. it will have frozen and made a bung which when the thermostat opens to allow hot water to flow though the radiator will have caused a build in pressure and popped at the weekest point. just be glad it wasn't your head gasket that went.

you may find other pipes will be weak now but then you may also be ok.
keep you antifreeze topped up as it's also a corrosion inhibitor so should stop the water going brown.

Yet again, thanks for your reply mate.

I did just think it would be water tbh.

Yep, very pleased that it wasn't the head gasket! Got off lightly I guess. If im honest the anti freeze isn't somthing I have checked since Ive had it, the guy at the garage said he would put some in for me and will keep an eye on it from now on.

The joys of old cars eh!  

You were lucky! If your coolant froze, its quite possible to crack the engine block.

go to machine mart and get
http://www.machinemart…nti-freeze-coolant-tester

then you know it'll be right.

i need to fix my water leak so this doesn't happen to me.

paul_c said

You were lucky! If your coolant froze, its quite possible to crack the engine block.

Really? Yikes!  

He did say, once he had seen the pipe, "Hopefully its done no other damage"…. Yep, lets hope so!  :?

Handy little gadget that, will get myself one of those I think.

-6 in Barnsley this morning and on 20m run down M1 there were 3 or 4 cars parked up on hardshoulder with bonnets up..... basic serviceing and preventative maintainance is all that is needed

He said the pipe will be about ?20 plus labour and abit antifreeze…. That sound about right?

Im not sure about the the cost of the pipe, but with his labour n antifreeze, this could start costing a bit. Like someone else said, it shouldnt take him long an if you could find a replacement pipe yourself, you should do it. Its only a case of draining the water an replacing the pipe an then filling with an antifreeze/water mix.

 :dontknow:

Early-1800 said

-6 in Barnsley this morning and on 20m run down M1 there were 3 or 4 cars parked up on hardshoulder with bonnets up….. basic serviceing and preventative maintainance is all that is needed

I know, I know.

My own fault for not checking I suppose, but the previous owner told me he had always had it serviced regularly so I just assumed (never assume anytihng!) that all the 'Levels' would be ok considering I have only had it a few weeks and hardly ran it. Like I say, would 99% of the time be garaged, and I dare say if it was last night this wouldn't have happened, but it wasn't and look what happens!

Ahh well, a lesson learnt I guess.  ops:

Yea you were lucky the core plugs weren't stuck on the end of iciles.

Even apprently well looked after low milage cars can suffer from lack of maintainance, look at the colour of the water that came out of my Cabrio; 8O
http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=11079&highlight=rusty+water

Yup, looks about the same shade of brown that was all over my engine bay and on the road this morning…

Like I say, lesson learnt.

Im new to this old car game, been lucky enough to have 2 previous cars, both of which i have driven out of the showroom from new so had minimal problems and under warrenty

Still got alot to learn I think  ops: