Thought I'd share with you the little drama we had heading home on the M7 going thru Sydney. Having a coaster the engine sits between the front seats (where the dog sits) and we had little warning about the onset of our problem... apart from the bus stalling but then the terrible smell and heaps of smoke...not even the temp. gauge rose
There was so much smoke/steam coming out of the engine we thought the whole bus would go up so you can imagine how we felt trying to pull over on the freeway...on a hill!
Hubby (Kersi) is yelling "get out & take the dog"...and of course I trip over the dog lead while trying to grab my handbag, lol. Kersi is frantic as well that other cars would plow into us as all the 6 or so lanes were busy too.
Anyway the RACV guy came and said we had lost the radiator cap and he was pretty sure we had 'cooked' the engine. I'm thinking "oh great, here we are another 7 hours from home with no transport plus a dog"
After another hour to let it cool off we managed to get it around the corner to a park where we sat for another 2 hours. Anway, 'upstairs" were defintitly looking after us that day as once it was filled with water it was fine. That was enough adventure for that week and we came on home the next day, Sue
May I suggest you now change all the rubber hoses, ---NOW---and also check the welsh plugs when pressure is up in the radiator, maybe even a spare cap, Good driving mate, its times like that you have memories to talk about in your dotage
you were lucky, could have been disastrous, because of a catastrophic loss of pressure I think the welshplugs will be fine just keep an eye on the hoses and give the radiator a flush after a couple hundred Klm's
heat build up to this level will release any rust deposits off the side of the head and block internally and may block up your thermostat so just keep an eye on that, be sure and replace it with the correct coolant to minimize the rust off the head and block internals
because of the sudden loss of fluids the temperature guage would have actually dropped slightly, but you would have had to be very observant to spot that, no fluid to transmit the temp
another reason I hate those freeways, too much to watch
Glad it worked out ok Sue & Kersi, that would have been a nightmare happening on the freeway, not a good end to the holiday ! Anyway glad all turned out for the best in the end.
Vic
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Vic "Sunset Coast" Member - Australian Touring Caravan & Motorhome Club www.atcmcc.org.au