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Dane

Guest
headbang

Had a quite for last week, but work starts to come in and things look promising....

then something i least expected

Van breaks down! just when ive forked out on new tyres, wishbones, tracking etc headbangheadbang

Any mechanics about... this one baffled my self (used to be mechanic) and a friend of mine who is a derv specialist/MOT Tester

Drove to town, no issues at all, everything fine, no over heating etc nothing.

Parks up... went off to do what we needed.

Came back to van, and started van, it hickuped a bit but started just as if battery was low.

reversed out of space, noticed water on floor. missus was adamant it was there before, and id no history of leaks on van

Set of driving, half mile down road water temp hit 108 degrees. So i pulled over, popped bonnet, water everywhere on front of engine and fans.

Strange thing now

It looks exactly like it had fairly liquid bubbles everywhere!

Got home started taking things to bits, first part... air box off

:| :|

Air filters wet

scratched ma head a bit, and then removed filter, to find air box full of this white "foamy" stuff....

Van drives fine, runs fine (apart from this) doesnt use water...

So im stuck at moment, mechanics coming tomorrow lol.

What we cant answer is why is the air filter **** wet through...

Vans a peugeot expert 1.9 TD

We cant rule out Head gasket, vans done 41k, but im not getting over heating.

Turbo? Water leaking through HG in water side and then "some how" traveling up hill and to air filter, its turbo, so water would be forced to the engine not to the air box lol... ??

headbangheadbangheadbang

Vans now offroad... untill it gets sorted.

Worst case

HG and turbo but will see lol

Any one got any ideas or had anything similar?

 
You don't want water being sucked into the engine, you'll get hydraulic lock which might bend your conrods and do all sorts of damage.

Do a compression check on it to see if the headgaskets gone, at least it ticks it off the list then.

 
You don't want water being sucked into the engine, you'll get hydraulic lock which might bend your conrods and do all sorts of damage.Do a compression check on it to see if the headgaskets gone, at least it ticks it off the list then.
ive got 2 years mechanics under my belt.

Compression test, all fine.

i know what hyrolock can do :) repairs many of them

Noz

Isn't "white foamy" stuff emulsified oil?
its more like washing up bubbles.

Got non of this in the water systems... its only in the air intake!

 
The windscreen washer's not leaking into the air intake? Looks like proper fairy liquid bubbles!
Exaclty whats cross my mind!!

but there at opposite sides of the engine and not leaking i tried them as thats what it looked like strait away to me!

It seriously does look like when uve washed pots, and unplug sink, its them exact bubbles..

 
Exaclty whats cross my mind!!but there at opposite sides of the engine and not leaking i tried them as thats what it looked like strait away to me!

It seriously does look like when uve washed pots, and unplug sink, its them exact bubbles..
A split in one of the hoses to the jets? They usually criss cross under the bonnet. Did you try activating the washer pump?

 
That was the first thing i did checked them pipes for wash jets, as it looks exactly like that

Its strange!

 
Can only offer this. I presume you have checked that the cooling system is not being pressurised by the engine. Has it lost water ?

Had a Talbot Express/ Ducatto/Peugeot van (crap) it shared an engine I believe with those makes, Breathers always clogged up with a something like you describe, also the rocker cover solid with it, and up the dipstick tube. Even found its way into the speedo drive cable if I remember right.

Dealers said it was caused by city driving, needs long runs. I thought that was nonsense TBH as every other van we had was fine with city traffic.

Not much help I suspect, good luck with it , let us know how you get on.

 
I dont do short driving really, very rare. So that rules that out! but again, what a load of bollox lol why would they design a van that cant do short runs

Even if the cooling system was been pressurized by the engine, that wouldnt explain this been in the air box.

Its a turbo, so it wouldn't be able to get into the air box unless travelling back through the turbo. which would be noticeable.

I will be removing as many pipes as i can tomorrow to narrow this down, before stripping engine and doing HG and removing turbo.

 
Not possible, i do all my own servicing.

Washer is far to left, oil is in the most awkward place going , coolant is obviously the head tank

 
what about a leak in the scuttle pannel? My transit leaked from where the wiper mech bolts into the scuttle pannel. This then caused the sound deadening underneath to get all wet through and it absorbed at the lowest point then used to drip from there onto the glow plug of cylinder 1.

just a suggestion.

 
i dont think its something with the engine its-self - since the water is before the air into to engine. could someone have got water to the filter (like trying to do damage to your van?), or leaky windscreen wash pipe as patch has suggested?

 
Tomorrow i will know more. (a spark with no lighting in his unit) LOL

Its definatly not a leak from the washer jets.

Its just the "bubbles" that are amazing me, as the air filter where the pipe to the turbo is, is perfectly dry, yet the side where the air comes into air filter is soaked.

So as andy says before engine.

Just like fault finding this :D

il strip pipes off tomorrow see if any are clogged.

The pipe INTO the air box, from the air feed, has holes in as its a u bend that goes below the box, so its there as a drain. so its just bloody strange!

 
Well after some tinkering

all pipes, no gunk, oil change, no problems there.

Cleaned ma filter as cant get a new one, and dried it lol.

flushed all coolant systems completely. left it with a huge header tank i made and just left water flwoing through engine on it own till running clear.

Filled up with water... no problems, no bubbles any where.

dropped some antifreeze in...

Will see how it behaves tomorrow lol

 
its probably been a one-off where water has somehow got into filter.

just a thought, but did you go through any pools of water that could have got water into air intake?

 
nope, the air filter is quite well protected, its at the top of the engine in air box

The air comes from grill and through a pipe with a U bend and into bottom of box, and U bend has holes in for drains.

Which is what confuses me more

 
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