Scottish Elises

Happened last night after the ScotElise meet( which, I should add, was awsome!).Temp creeeeps real slow when sitting idling to 100...101....102 with the fan on it still goes up. I let it climb to 106 (well within cooking range of 120) and switched it off. Its fine on the move...tis a steady 86 (which is actually higher than the norm for my car which is usually 80-82).
I looked at the coolant tank... its empty . I aint moved it since last night. Suggestions anyone?

Put coolant in it an retest. Probably blown Head gasket.

Check under the oil cap for mayo type substance

Put more in the expansion tank (remember the cold fill mark is actually the 'min' mark - it should climb nearer 'max' when hot) Start the engine running and see how quickly it dissappears.

As Simon says, check for mayo on the oil cap. If there's none, take a look round the block to see if there's any witness marks of leaks around the head gasket level.

It's not necessarily HGF, could be a weeping coolant pipe to the rad (check behind the offside front inner wheelarch) Could also be an inlet manifold gasket.

Few things to check basically.... Fingers crossed for you buddy

Check in the coolant bottle for signs of mayo too. If theres no sign of it anywhere it could just be a cap fault causing a pressure drop and making it overheat. This would be the cheapest option. You could take it to a garage and get them to do a coolant pressure test for leaks, then do a sniffer test for head gasket failure. Sniffer test is a bottle that you put a special fluid in and run the car up to temp, then you suck the gas out of the expantion bottle through the fluid. It there's any hydrocarbons (there should be none in a cooling system) then the fluid changes colour to signify a leak from the cylinders into the cooling jackets. Eg, h/g/f.

If your struggling for someone to do it, give me a shout, i've got all the stuff to check it here.

Im struggling! Elp! All garages are busy and cant look at it bah. I think its what you suggested shug as theres no mayo anywhere or white smoke on startup. Must be a leak somewhere in the front pipage as you said. Either that or a weak cap on the coolant tank as it was seeping out when I switched the engine off at the 106 mark. I read the manual and it stated that leakage shouldnt occur until 120 degrees.
Gordon ya got pm.

Cap could be... Gordon's yer man, in any case

Doh. Sounds like it could be an $ or very cheap result. Hoping for the cheap one for you!

If you turn the heater on and can smell smokey bacon crisps or the windscreen steams up on the inside then it signifies a leaky heater matrix. That happended to mine.

Walkers or Golden Wonder?

Stephen wrote:If you turn the heater on and can smell smokey bacon crisps or the windscreen steams up on the inside then it signifies a leaky heater matrix. That happended to mine.

Either that or you've got crisps in you heater vents.
Hate it when that happens.

Pizzaboy. I replied to you this afternoon. Check your pm's.

Tar for the advie n offers to help guys. I think its ok for now...I refilled it with coolant and the temps are stable and the fan cools the car as usual at 98 degrees. However it IS sitting at 86 most of the time instead of the normal 80-82 so im going to get the whole system purged and refilled next thursday. Fingers crossed till then.

80-82? I thought the thermostat thing was 89? Mine sits at 89-90 all the time, apart from when I switch on anything electric (Under investigation) Is this bad?

Don't pay too much attention to numbers on the gauge... Just think, if it was a standard damped analogue gauge on a standard car, you'd *never* notice the fluctuations we're worrying about.

If the car sits at a standard temp, within 5 degrees, and rises in traffic, drops when the fan comes on - it's probably perfectly fine

The electrical fluctuations point to bad earthing. Clean up the earth strap to the chassis in the engine bay and check connections - that should sort it to an extent.

(Standard stat is 87deg, btw)