How do you know if you have air trapped in your coolant system?
 

Hi,

Just wondering how you would know if you have air trapped in your coolant system/radiator which can lead to headgasket and other troubles?

THX!

well what i heard u do is start the car with the rad cap off let it run for a while and watch for air bubbles rising in the coolant. if there are bubbles then that means u have air in the system

yup, check for bubbles.

If you have air trapped in your cooling system. your car would overheat usually rather quickly.

Well, that's what I did. Radiator cap off and let the car idle until operating temperature. But the coolant just comes spilling out of the radiator (no air bubbles though).

So what does that mean?

overheating.. or your turn your heat all the way up.. if its not hot then you got an air lock.

means its fine

did u bleed it via the bleeder valve?

Overheating? So internally? Well, tried it again and the heat is hot. So I guess that's a good sign.

if heat is hot its fine.

why do you think theres air in your sys. anyways?

Because the mechanic who did my coolant flush was a super newb. I dunno if he did everything rite so I just wanted to make sure. Also, my friend blew his headgasket recently because of an improper coolant flush leading to air bubbles in his system which caused overheating, etc.

like i said,.. if your heater is functioning and you aren't overheating. its fine

Hey Chris, when you say overheating, you mean by looking at my temperature gauge rite?

simplest way to tell if you have bubbles is

look at the engine temperature.
if there is an air bubble the car's temperature needle will fluctuate and go up and down often.

ya

You aren't suppose to take off the cap to bleed. Unlock the cap but leave it on the rad (still locked, but not tight), wait until the fan goes on twice. Tighten it and you are done.

My heat doesnt work but operates at correct temperatures... whats wrong?

sounds like you heater core is not working

good one einstein


.. did you recently do a coolant flush?

that doesnt make sense. The heat is transferred from your coolant.. so before OT it shouldnt be hot.. it should just be warm.

Is it cool when its on hot? or just warm?

Bubbles in the rad is a very bad sign. 9 times out of 10 it's the head gasket because it's blowing air into the coolant passages.

When you fill new fluid, you're only supposed to put 3/4 of the jug so the water pump doesnt run dry, turn the heat all the way on and fill it up to the rim and fill the overflow to the MIN level...if you still have bubbles after that, looks like your headgasket doesnt like you anymore.