Hello, I'm new to the forum and in need of some help. I've got an '02 SE7 with 98k miles. The other day I noticed a gushing water noise behind my glovebox. Was told it is probably air in the coolant and needed to check for leaks. Found a small leak in the small hose at the top of the radiator. Took it to a shop to repair, they topped off the coolant, but still had the gushing water sound. Was told to turn the temp all the way on high and the air pocket would eventually work out. I did that for the last two days and yesterday on my way to work my temp guage showed the engine getting hot and the red light came on. I immediately pulled off the road. Raised the hood and was out of coolant. The shop that fixed the leak brought some coolant so I could get to the shop. We filled it up with coolant, I got back on the interstate and it got hot again, so I had to have it towed. It appeared the thermostat was stuck, but we put on a new thermostat from LR and that didn't fix it. When the coolant is put back in it just gets hot again and spews the coolant back out via the overflow hose. Any ideas? I'm at a loss. Could the air pocket still be causing a problem? The shop mentioned taking it to someone that could put a vacuum on it to make sure all the air was out. Just had a head gasket job about 3,000 miles ago. Its been running great up until my coolant leak. I welcome any suggestions. Thanks.

Ryan

 

Just running with the heat on will not remove the air pocket, you need to do this with the radiator cap off.

Start when engine is cold,fill the coolant resevoir, leave the cap off.
Turn the heater on hot and idle the engine keeping the coolant full.
There is a bleed screw on top of the top radiator hose, loosen it, once coolant starts to come out at a steady rate close that screw.
Once a steady stream of steam comes out of the coolant resevoir replace the radiator cap.
Leave the engine running this whole time making sure that the heat is hot and the temp gauge is ok.

Sounds to me like you need a new mechanic, any wrench jockey worth his weight in motor oil knows how to properly bleed a cooling system.

 

First of all, where is your bleed screw, is it in the upper radiator hose or in a black plastic Tee? If you don't have the new style hose with the Tee, it will need to be replaced ASAP because of their high failure.
Here is the proper way to bleed your coolant system of air. With the engine cold, remove the bleed screw, remove the coolant recovery bottle cap and start filling the system till water/coolant is coming out the bleed screw. Once that happens, then replace the bleed screw and the coolant cap. Then go drive as normal with the heater on till the engine has been at operating temp for 5 or 10 minutes.
Check the coolant level for a couple of mornings, always when cold. If the level stops dropping you are in good shape, if it doesn't, then you have a coolant leak that needs to be addressed ASAP.

 

With the radiator cap in place air cannot excape.

 

Wow! Thanks for the fast replies Disco Mike and Spike! My bleed screw is in the plastic tee. Its funny that the shop I took it to never mentioned taking off the bleed screw. I bet they never did that and from what I can tell from reading the forums taking it off is a must. I just hope I haven't hurt my engine and the head gasket job I just had done. I got off the interstate immediately after I saw the red light. Thanks again for your help. I'll report back how it turns out.

 

@ryanswindell. i am experiencing the same thing to my 2000 DiscoII. i would like to find out if bleeding the system by taking off the bleed screw corrected your overheating problem. looking forward to your reply