Afternoon all, can someone shed some light on what happened to me yesterday.

At midday I drove 35 miles up the motorway, upon reaching my destination i left the engine idling for approximatly 3 minutes whilst i dropped my son off at a party. As i walked back to the car there was a loud his and white smoke / steam from under the bonnet. I switched the engine off straight away and checked under the bonnet, nothing appeared out of the ordinary, coolent etc was ok. Could it have been something to do the air conditioning, as this was on for the whole time?

Car drives ok and everything seemed to work when i switched it back on.

Help!!!!

Relax, it was probably the expansion tank venting a little excess pressure, did you overfill it or perhaps the rad fans are not working as they should be?

All fluid levels are spot on, so nothing to worry about you don't think?

Great to see so many people jumping to help me out with advice! :-(

Was it steam or smoke, Has it reoccurred, Does the car drive differently, Any warning lights on at the time or subsequently?

Can you check the operation of the fans by turning the air con on? (used to on my pug 306) If so that would eliminate the fan motors? Also was the steam coming coming out of one side of the bonnet?

Stephen

Nothing to worry about. Let us know when it comes from the exhaust. Id suggest maybe your fan's not cutting in when it should. Did you check the temp gauge at the time?

Temp gauge was normal, fans sound like they are coming on, no warning lights on dash and i drove 250 miles sunday night and everything seemed well. Don't suppose it makes any difference but the mileage is coming up 130k now.

Edited 5 February, 201214 yr by copper2482