Minor disaster today
A loud bang and a lot of steam.
After a trip on the pickup lorry to the workshop and opening up the engine cover I discovered that the plastic 'T' that connects 4 cooland pipes together (located just by the air filter cover) had decided to break (well, it's a 'T' with a 4th leg) and I had dumped all my coolant onto the road.
I have no idea what the availability of one of these would be so I made one out of 15mm copper tube and a bit of 3/8" air conditioning refrigerant pipe - all brazed together rather than soft soldered. Job done although it seems a touch smaller in diameter so I'm thinking of making another one from a 20mm brass T and brazing the 4th pipe (again with the aircon tube which seems about the right size).
Is this a common failure? Looking at the plastic bit it looks like it isn't too strong and I'm suspecting it may have had a previous crack although there weren't any signs of leaks before hand.
The engine did get hot today while stuck in a queue - I'm suspecting it hadn't been properly bled as the heater (the couple of times I've tried it) takes a long time to work.
I have tested both the engine compartment fan and the radiator fans so I know they all work. I'm thinking of at least testing the coolant sensor just in case - a job for tomorrow or the weekend.