Home/Cooling, belts and leaks
Overheating, belts and leaks
Radiators, hoses, thermostats, water pumps and drive belts, plus working out where that puddle on the driveway came from.
Perth metro · 8am–8pm, 7 days · Fixed price up front
Overheating is the fault most likely to turn a moderate repair bill into an engine replacement, and it usually gives you warning first. A Perth summer is not kind to a cooling system that is already marginal.
If the temperature gauge climbs into the red, pull over and switch the engine off. Driving a few more kilometres to get home is how a cheap thermostat becomes a warped head. Ring me from where you have stopped.
What tends to fail
- Thermostat. Stuck closed and the car overheats quickly. Stuck open and it never reaches temperature, which hurts fuel economy and wear.
- Radiator. Corrosion, blocked cores, or a split plastic end tank, which is a common failure once they are old.
- Hoses. They go hard and crack, or soft and swollen. Either way they fail suddenly rather than gradually.
- Water pump. Often signalled by a weep from the pump housing or a bearing noise before it goes properly.
- Radiator cap. Cheap, frequently overlooked, and it holds the pressure the whole system depends on.
- Cooling fans. A car that overheats in traffic but is fine on the freeway is usually telling you the fan is not running.
Reading the puddle
What is under the car is a useful clue before I even arrive.
- Green, pink or orange and slippery. Coolant.
- Light brown to black and oily. Engine oil.
- Reddish and thin, often near the middle. Transmission or power steering fluid.
- Clear water, usually in summer. Almost always air conditioning condensation, which is completely normal.
Drive belts
The accessory belt runs the alternator, the water pump on many engines, the power steering and the air conditioning. When it goes, several things stop at once and the car will usually overheat within minutes. Cracking, glazing and squealing on a cold start are all worth acting on early, because the belt itself is one of the cheaper parts on the car.
Common questions
Can I just top it up with water?
In an emergency, to get off the road, yes. As a fix, no. Plain water lowers the boiling point and offers no corrosion protection, and it does not address whatever let the coolant out in the first place.
How do you find a slow leak?
Pressure testing the system cold, which forces the leak to show itself without running the engine to temperature.
Tell me the year, make and noise
Ring me, or fill in the job card and it lands straight in my inbox. Callout is $100 and it comes off the bill.
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