Close call today. Thought she was going up in flames!!

Hottest day of the year so far in the UK today (16c lol) so as always put the missus in the passenger seat and went for a blast. Wasn't pushing my modena too fast but was giving it a good run and got about 20 miles from my house, up on a fast mountain road. Suddenly noticed something catching my eye in the rear view, big clouds of thick white smoke filling the engine bay and streaming out the car behind me! Almost sprayed my half digested breakfast all over the cabin but managed to quickly pull over and screamed at my girl to get out as I thought we were going to be sunday roast!

Popped the engine cover while my missus ran for the nearest cover but I could hardly see anything from all the smoke coming from the back. Opened the cover and then sat for about 10 mins on the side of the road expecting for the thing to go up in a big fireball. Luckily though as we waited, the white clouds slowly dispersed and only showed the whole engine bay and glass covered in liquid spray. No flames or anything, just steam and water!

By this time there was a nice queue of slow moving traffic all trying to squeeze past my car and get a good look and the knobhead with the broken down ferrari. While I thought this would be a nightmare, most people looked genuinely concerned and only one car load of kids shouted out their window but it was a "gutted mate" rather than "haha choke on some ball smoke" which I would have thought was more to be expected. Saying that though I was probably trending on twitter earlier and there's probably 100,000 hipsters saying I should have got an R8 instead lol.

Anyway, once the smoke machine died down, I hopped back in the car and set the heater to full heat, full blast to try and cool her down a bit to check the water level. I had checked this about 3 weeks ago (as well as the oil) and both had been fine. Both the water and oil temp gauges hadn't even gone past 210 (straight up) during my while drive and weren't even now. Didn't know if this was a good or bad thing as I hoped the cause might have been some overheating and nothing more serious. Either way, once cooled down a bit I checked the expansion tank and it was bone dry. Filled this back up straight away with a 2ltr bottle of water I had in the car, just to be on the safe side, and then checked the oil. Nothing showing on the stick at all despite her being still relatively warm.

Fast forward about an hour later and a long walk to the nearest garage for 10 litres of water and 5 litres of mobil 1. Sure most of you will think I'm nuts not just calling a recovery truck but I filled both back up and thought I would carefully limp her home. She took 2 litres of water and 2 of 0w40. Keeping an eye on my gauges, plus driving in the rearview and stopping every 2 miles to check the water and oil levels, I finally made it home. She was leaking water the whole way and needed topping up with a litre everytime I stopped but the oil level seems to be fine. Really don't understand why this was so low after the incident as she was only serviced 500 miles ago and she was full to brim then (yes I know how to check the oil with a dry sump) plus I checked her a few weeks ago and she was fine plus the temp never got high enough when she was steaming to burn any oil up. Either way I suspected a blown water hose or maybe even water pump.

Once home I was in full home mechanic mode and pulled the interior apart and removed the engine access panel. First time I've done this to my despite removing pretty much every other panel in the past, but it very quick and easy. Straight away I could see the problem, a one inch split in a hose just as its entering the engine. Eurospares call it a "Rubber delivery hose" part#181779 and its just basically a six inch connector hose that connects the aluminium water hose and the water pump, fixed on with a jubilee clip at each end. For some reason it must have burst and then spewed water all over my lovely clean engine bay causing it to be turned into steam especially when hitting the manifolds and exhaust etc. Price of the part is £65+Vat&delivery which seems overly excessive for a small piece of rubber hose but it seems to be the only thing wrong so I am happy to say the least. Although saying that, if anyone knows an alterative part number for it, please let me know! Plan on doing a good flush of the system once I fit the new part, plus will look into checking the condition of the cam belts when I've got the engine access panel off. The fan belt etc all seems to be fine still as was confirmed when she was serviced recently. If anyone knows of anything else I can check whilst I'm there please let me know but will have a good read tonight as I've never checked a cam belt before.

Anyway sorry for the long story but thought I would share as I thought the dream was all over and my heart is still going 8500 rpm if you hadn't guessed. Also think it was fate as I only told a guy on here two days ago my 360 had only ever let me down once in 2 years of daily driving and was like an ak47 in the reliability stakes!

 

Def checked it the correct way and it has undoubtably gone down in the last 3 weeks despite using the car so little. Normally I find cold oil will just show on the bottom of the stick when it is about 50% between the two markers when warm. Only thing I can think of is that 0w40 oil gets used faster than the 5w40 I used to use. Strange.

Too true! So lucky in retrospect! Probably wasn't the worst place to break down either. Could have been on the motorway or even more likely outside a packed pub somewhere.

Here is the part that actually split. Its the hose connected to the thermostat, to the right of the red circle, with jubilee clips attached. Thanks to voicey for the photo, taken from his coolant change guide.

Can't believe they want £80+ for this but could be so much worse. Half tempted to go to my local plumbing supplier and see if they have the same thing. Bet it would be £2 at most

 

Hi Tim, yes almost exactly the same just 1 ltr between min and max instead if 1.5 iirc. Thanks tho, i appreciate its a common mistake to make.

As for the hose, been looking online and if anyone requires the same part in future there are online suppliers that offer the same hose for a fraction of the price. Its a 4" silicone straight reducer, size 45mm to 35mm. Can be had from plenty of performance auto suppliers for around £10. Seen some ferrari parts places charging over £200 for the same bit of tubing with lower psi ratings. Unbelievable.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys. Got my replacement hose today and fitted it. Checked my expansion cap as recommended in another thread and unfortunately it is in a very poor state. Ordered another but it will take at least two weeks to arrive from italy.

Would really like some expertise tho. As my coolant system was quite drained (the hose that broke was the one delivering the themostat) I needed to refil the system once the replacement hose was in place. As per voicey's guide I filled the expansion tank up to the required level, undid the bleeder screw on the thermostat, let the air out, retightened and then refilled. Started her up with heaters on full, waited for her to warm up (not sure how you can tell if the thermostat is open or closed but she was at operating temp), let the small amount of remaining air out of the bleeder (bit dodgy with all the spinning belts etc!) and then ran her for 20 mins at idle.

All was looking good, temps stable, no loss of coolant etc. Bear in mind the expansion cap has been off the whole time so I can monitor coolant amount. Turned her off and suddenly she starts bumping air and cooland out of the expansion tank. Loads of it came out. Thought it might have been trapped air so have now repeated all of the above 3x and the same happens. 3litres of coolant pours out as soon as I switch her off.

I've tried replacing the expansion cap before turning her off but she does the same just down the overflow pipe rather than out the neck of the tank. The cap has definitely had it but I'm sure it's been like this for a while so probably not the cause of the issue imo. It lets air in and out at the moment so isn't pressuring the tank correctly but I don't think this should be causing 3ltrs of coolant to come flying out anyway.

Can anyone recommend anything?
Do you think the cap is to blame or is it still trapped air somewhere?
Would it be advisable to block the cap so it is a sealed unit and try again?

I really don't want to have to not use the car for another 2 weeks because of the cap especially as it probably been working fine with it as it is for so long.

Grateful for any help. Thanks.

 

^^ did you open the thermostat bleed valve to release any air? You will need to and run the engine until water comes out. Re tighten and then top up coolant.

 

My pleasure. Just keep an eye on the coolant level for the next few weeks as there maybe a few more small air pockets in the system that will work its way to the expansion tank. I just checked mine everytime before taking her out as its not good to open when hot. Also check your expansion cap is in good condition as mine was shot to pieces. Maserati do the same part as ferrari for a good discount.