overflowing coolant

[walian at att.net]

Brett,

  Just put water in the car temporally. Just plan on
having water in the car for a week. Need to figure out
how to completely drain the system and replace the
coolant. Looks like there is a special tool I need to
use but don't know exactly were the drain on the 2.8l
is. I have already purchased the audi coolant.

Looks like i overfilled the tank with water because when
the engine cooled down it looks like its down to the max
level in the expansion tank. I remember having to
replace caps and expansion tanks on my previous 5ks. But
this car didn't overflow until I did the timing belt
waterpump and new thermostat. Hoping thats the only
problem, The timing is a bit off on one of the
cams/heads and I am going to have a local shop do the
timing correctly on Monday.

Frank
> At 11:50 PM +0000 8/19/02, walian at att.net wrote:
>
> >  Can replacing the coolant with straight water make the
> >expansion tank overflow?
>
> Yes.  Been there, done that 3 days ago.  See below.
>
> >  I have just put the timing
> >belt and refilled the radiator with water. I drove to
> >work this morning(20 min) and noticed that the car was
> >low on coolant(water) a few hours later when I went to
> >run an errand the emergency light came on and the
> >expansion tank was completely empty. I filled it to the
> >brim with water and drove home, no problems. I just
> >came back from a store and the radiator expansion tank
> >is now leaking water. Can this be due to straight water
> >or a bad thermostat which I just replaced?
>
> Probably more likely that your expansion tank cap is leaking
> pressure, so that's allowing the water to boil.  On my 200, idling,
> it would spit out almost a quart in a matter of seconds if I left the
> cap off; with the cap on, it would idle for 20 minutes easily without
> boiling over.  I have a brand new cap that doesn't leak, period...and
> that's probably the difference here, though checking(or simply
> replacing) the thermostat probably isn't a bad idea- they do go
> bad/stick...
>
> The caps are about $5-ish at any VW or Audi dealer, practically
> guaranteed to be in stock.  Still, you shouldn't be running water all
> the time(I was only doing it for 10-20 minutes to flush the system.)
> I can't imagine the thermostat being pricey either.
>
> Don't run "just water" in a car for anything more than just temporarily:
>
> a)zero corrosion protection and in fact just the opposite, especially
> with distilled water(or worse, deionized water which is -very-
> corrosive)
> b)zero lubrication for the water pump
> c)zero freezing protection(of course)
>
> Brett
> --
> ----
> "They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
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