Hello,

This is my first post so I hope it makes sense..

During the recent cold spell, the antifreeze froze in my felicia. Actually it was mostly water due to a lingering leak somewhere. After many miserable hours reading about this on the internet, I now know what a potential death sentance this is for my car. Anyhow, after noticing the frozen hoses in my car I wasn't able to do much except disconnect the hoses that I could, and put a couple of blankets and hot water bottles in the engine. The car is now thawed. I realised it had popped a core/freeze plug (thanks google), so I've replaced it (the most difficult one behind the exhaust pipe thing). I drained out the old coolant through the screw at the bottom of the system, and flushed it a bit, then topped it up.

The car now starts fine. I think there must be air in the system so I've ran it in the drive for 15 mins with the top off. The hoses are hot, except the bottom one from the radiator, which is also cold. There is warm air blowing into the car, but the temperature gage never moved at all. There is a bit of coolant coming back from the top hose into the expansion tank - does this mean my water pump still works?

If that wasn't enough, there is a lot of white smoke coming out of the exhaust, and some black deposits on the ground beneath it.

Does this mean my car has had it? I don't know a lot about cars - an oil change is usually all I do, but I have picked up a lot of information from these forums.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

Run it up to normal temp with the cap off, topping up as required- set the heater to hot and fast-idle the engine (say 2k rpm) let it cool back down, top up to correct level, refit the cap, and drive it again. It will take a while: you need to get the thermostat open.

If the white smoke (steam) continues, and the level drops, you're in trouble. If the steam goes away (it could just be condensation) and the level stays OK, you're lucky.

It sounds like the pump is OK, but you could have cracked something.

You did put antifreeze in when you refilled it, didn't you?

if the bottom radiator hose is cold then the thermostat is probably goosed... but i'd say if it's got cold enough to pop a core plug out then it's not good news

i dont know how tru this is, so dont take it as biblical, but isnt there a risk of the water cracking a cooling channel in the block if its frozen all the way down to the bottom hoses??

i dont know how tru this is, so dont take it as biblical, but isnt there a risk of the water cracking a cooling channel in the block if its frozen all the way down to the bottom hoses??

yes that's true, but the 1300 skoda engines have wet liners so it's a totally different frozen kettle of fish tbh.... my guess is that it is dead!!!

Thanks for the help and advice. The car starts (which is more than I ever thought it would!), I 've filled it with 50:50 anti-freeze and think I've got most of the air locks out. The exhaust has stopped smoking and so far there's no mayonnaise in the oil... I suppose I'll just have to see how it goes over the next few days,

Oh well, if nothing else, I'll never forget to put antifreeze in a car again.

Thanks again, these forums are sooo appreciated!

Fleecie

The white smoke could just be condensation tbh as they are quite prone to it. If I leave mine for a while (3 weeks was the longest) there is normally mayo under the cap and some white smoke out of the exhaust on first run but then it dissapears completely after use.

Maybe you have been very lucky then and learnt a lesson about the importance of antifreeze!

Phil

Thanks! A very painful and miserable lesson - but will never skip the antifreeze - ever! I'm resolve to take a little more care of the old slug in future. x