"Ballooned" radiator after HGF ??
 

Hi all,

In a few days, I will take a quick look at a forum member`s ZT-T 1.8 which has suffered HGF. He have had the car at an ex-MGR garage for diagnosis, and they have concluded with HGF. They have also concluded that the radiator, coolant hoses and expansion tank have to be replaced as these has seen to much pressure and have "balooned". The same applies to the AC "radiator".
I have never heard of issues like this before and think it sounds strange.
Have any of you heard of this happening before?

I guess the quick look at that car will give me some more answers to my questions :)

I can believe the hoses have split through pressure but surprised the radiator has unless it was so corroded it has sprung a leak. The condenser though? :shrug:

Not heard of that ever. The radiator cap should vent before that occurs? Unless they mean the EPDM coolant hoses are contaminated by hydrocarbon and have swollen to the extent that they sweat oil?

Hmmm. I think your title may be the wrong way round. It should read HGF after hoses/radiator ballooned. A failure elsewhere in the system had overpressurised (I suspect total radiator blockage) and HGF lets go to relieve pressure.
Not sure about a/c rad though...

Time will show how things is. I am going to take a look at this one tomorow evening. The guy told me that spark plug no.4 was wet with coolant during dismantling of the cylinder head. He also mentionend something about a broken T-piece or radiator elbow.

then the inlet manifold gASKET HAS GONE and there is no hgf

There is a lot of coolant in the oil (mayo), so there is no doubt about a HGF. For all I know, a leaky IMG as the main cause for this, making the HG fail due to loss of coolant.

It would require considerably more pressure than any cooling system can generate to 'balloon' a radiator. The plastic parts would detach before anything 'ballooned'. In fact the whole thing sounds like flim-flam from a garage on the make. Even the aircon radiator has ballooned'! I ask yer, it's about as convincing as this.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19..._Inflation.jpg

TC

Hi TC,

This was my first though when the owner told me the garage`s feedback from his visit. I guess this is one of the reasons why he decided to see if he could go his own route to solve the issue. This is also the reason why I have decided to take a look at this one as it is probably not as bad as the garage claim.

I guess its the same with this as many others:
- Repair the HGF in the proper way
- Check/find and fix issues with the coolant system
- Pray for a survival for the turbo :D

I will report back after the visit tomorrow :)

It seems to have been some BS and misunderstanding from the mechanic in this case. Things does not look as bad as it was stated in the first place. We will start repairing the HGF first, and then go over the cooling system at the end of the repair for fault finding.

I have started a new thread for the HGF repair: http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/foru...52#post1226752