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-16°C In Aberdeen Last Night

berserk_gorilla

berserk_gorilla

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Newcastle upon Tyne
So today hasn't been the best day...

There were lows of -16°C in Aberdeen City last night which, if you ask me, is pretty damn cold. Because of this Bertie and I have had a bit of a problem.


Set off this morning at 7.45am, giving myself enough time to defrost the car and be on my way. Put the keys in and VROOM! Off we went. Driving along and I thought something was up, there seemed to be a strong smell of rubber but I couldn't put my finger on it. Then, 2 mils in, all of a sudden ¡¡KA-THUD!! Sounded like something fell off the car, a big bit of snow? I stopped, got out and walked round to the front. Damn! I could see orange water all over the white white snow! It didn't look good. Being relatively mechanically inept I rang Bobble to ask his advice, all the while hoping that I hadn't done anything to the head gasket. With some reassurance Bobble suggested that it may be a burst pipe. So after a brief look at the engine I wondered how I managed to miss the mother of all broken pipes. Not only had it burst and dumped all of the water down the road, it seemed to have warped the fan belt. Bugger. Time to call for rescue. My friend came out in his Volvo 850 to give me a hand and after a quite trip to B&Q, to buy a tow rope, we pulled Bertie out of the Aberdeenshire wilderness and back to civilisation.


She is resting for the rest of tonight. I have cut the bad bit of pipe off and reattached the remaining part back onto the engine. The fan belt may have been warped by the water, then again it is in pretty bad shape and does need replacing. I think a chat with Bobble is needed to learn how to put blood back into The Miracle Whip and bleed her.

We're back and okay. It could have been worse...
 
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Water pump siezed up, due to not enough antifreeze, hence the belt snapping, me thinks.
 
Bugger...

Ah, the belt snapped first!

That fits with Bobble's new 'frozen fan belt and not getting pumped water' theory.
 
Could be Reggie, but i usually run all our cars ( and the boys ) with 50/50 antifreeze/water winter and summer ( but -16 could be stretching it ) he did say there was a strange smell and then a ka-thump so assumed the belt had frozen to the pulleys and when he started it the crankshaft chewed it's way through the belt and snapped it leading up to overheating and then taking the easiest or weakest point of escape fragile water pipe.

Now he has to renew both belts ( which i did tell him to do couple of months ago ) fill up with water and try it first to make sure everything is alright before draining again and then add antifreeze ( maybe a bit stronger this time ) also told him bleeding the system is a pain in the neck, but 500 miles is a bit far to pop over and help.
 
Have you checked the head gasket, as this is normally the cause of burst pipes (I had a spate of them about five years ago and eventually tracked it down to the head gasket - new gasket and skim and all was well). I would not have thought anything would have frozen or burst with a 50:50 mixture. In 1982 I started my R4 in a temperature of minus 21 (Uk's coldest day at the time) and no butst pipes then.
GTLs are prone to head gasket failures as the cylinder head bolts are only barely adequate and need regular torquing.
 
From the colour of the rusty water in the second photo I'm with reggie with freezing. Bottom hose off, drain the rusty water out, then refill with 50% antifreeze (should work out about 33% given you can't drain the whole system that way).

Freezing can cause all sorts of trouble - I reckon that's what cracked the cylinder head on the Gordini. You might find you now have a bit of trouble, but getting antifreeze in quickly might help avoid worse trouble.
 
Antifreeze

I once had an austin champ, that lived indoors, so never checked the antifreeze, one bad winter it froze and cracked the block, rolls royce engine too, - :eek:, luckily nobody wanted them in those days, so i got a brand new one in a crate for £40, ex wd. :D
 
Update...

Thanks for the feedback guys. I have been out, braving the snow, and had a bit more of a look at it over the weekend. I don't think it's very good.

Fan belts changed no bother. Then tried to put some more water in since it was lacking a fair bit after "The Incident". Took the radiator cap off and this is what I found...

h09cBl.jpg


... Spent a good while pouring warm water over various pipes and tubes trying to defrost them. Most of them felt full of ice. Then pouring warm water down the various pipes and tubes to try and thaw everything out (I am beginning to doubt there was any antifreeze in Bertie, let alone 50/50).

Finally defrosted them all, filled her up and started the engine. Ran fine for 5 minutes and turned her off. Emptied all that out and began to fill her with antifreeze... It poured and poured and gushed and poured out somewhere, it dripped all over the ground. I think it came from the radiator. Took that out and this is what we found...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsLHk3SZSV4
 
Brand new radiators are available on e bay at present at £109 Add said Denso ,mine came last week and it was Valeo.
Gary
 
I would like to go to a Springsteen concert however he will never be as good as Fleetwood Mac (who i have seen twice)
 
Yes it did!

One this though, how old is that man? his rinkles are amazing lol, If he were a tree how many 'rinks' would he have? :shock:
 
Sounds a good price for the radiator but you're forgetting he's still a student and 109 is like a months groceries & beer, anyway one's packed and will be shipped to you tomorrow ( it's Rosalie's, so i know it a good one ) she wont be needing it until the start of spring after her revamp and then she'll be looking forward to Thurnay.
 
Thank you.

Haha! Gripping is the word I would probably use Ian, don't you think? Cheers for Bruce! I did watch it but I wasn't too sure at what was going on. Moved quickly on to Mr Stewart and then on to this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgczlrYM4eI

... It sounds a great price for a radiator, but at the moment Bobble is right. Thank you. I'll be sure that Rosalie gets it back good and proper. I'm sure a new radiator will be on the cards in January when the student loan comes around again. I'm sure I can do without food for one month :p
 
GO WITHOUT FOOD i don't think so the amount you and your brothers eat. anyway it will give you something to do at the weekend instead of going to the pub.
 
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