Bubbling sound after semi-hard driving

[oblivion]

Hi All,

After driving in a rather harsh way, i do hear bubbling or gurgling sounds from the engine bay area. I would assume this is the coolant boiling or something. I typically leave my engine idle for 30 seconds or if long runs, 1.5 minutes.

Just wondering if this is a normal thing or a symptom to a bigger problem?

Thanks for any advise.

 

[yams727]

hey dude,

i had that problem once when the fan in front of the radiator wasn't functioning properly after an accident.

the boiling sound must be coming from the plastic container connected to the radiator.

maybe you should get your fan checked, or ensure there is enough water in the radiator.

good luck.

 

[soff]

could be a faulty radiator cap. Change new or change to 1.5bar

 

[LA53OKD]

its 1.3 bar la soff and the sound could be your radiator doesnt have enough water. check also that its clean or not and if not then flush it ...

 

[khoo198]

hmm......i'm have same problem too....coolant is enough,fan is operative,must b tht radiator cap faulty.

 

[oblivion]

i have checked the fan and coolant, all is well. I am using coolant which does not need to be diluted by water. At least that's what it says on the bottle.

Anyway, one advice i saw on other forums was to leave the engine idle for longer periods, maybe 3-5 minutes. I'll try that and report :)

 

[Joyride]

most properly is need longer time to cool down. actually if you have a water temp, you will noticed. when you turn off the engine , water no longer running but the cylinder block is still very hot, hence it boil up the water around it. then the access water will flow out to the spare tank(that's the function of the spare tank) and cause the bubble sound. to avoid this you might need to cruise the car for 5 minutes or more to cool the whole system down. idle cool down with fan need much longer time. how long to cool down, you can test it when you shut down the engine and then on the ignition again to check the water temperature, if it go up more then idling that's mean the engine block is still hotter then the water. heat have not transfer totally to the water. usually if the temp hit up more then 100 degree sometimes can up to 107degree even you idle for 2 minutes before shut down after a hard drive. so with test to research, by idle the engine long and long see how long it need to cool down the engine for certain type of hard drive.

 

[oblivion]

Hi Joyride,

This makes perfect sense. i have never noticed my water temperature after shutting down the engine. I will note it later.

Perhaps, all that is needed is longer idle period. I suppose 30 secs of idle after hard driving is hardly sufficient.

Great advice. Thanks!

 

[khoo198]

ok......just tried 2minutes idle time to cool down....no more boiling sound

 

[LA53OKD]

i dunno how hard you drive your MR but if you drive it "semi hard" you should let the engine cool down for roughly a minimum of 5 mins after driving it slow for 5 mins first ... if you drive it "hard" then roughly 10 mins of slow drive and around 10 mins of cooling down before turning it off

the longer is always better as your turbo needs to cool down properly if not it could get damaged

 

[khoo198]

wow....10min....then the 'wajalution' and 'wiralution' damn happy when they overtake us

 

[LA53OKD]

huh? what are you talking about

 

[khoo198]

huh? what are you talking about

u said slow drive 10minutes ma.....

 

[EDDYSW20]

Hi, I had the same incident happen on my engine, the bubbling sound after shutdown, was due to an overheat. They're right that it could be due to spirited driving but first thing you need to do is to idle a wee bit longer, supposed to be up to 3 minutes per the manual after a spirited driving. And make sure your coolant is mixed, there is also written in the manual not to exceed 50% concentration and another stating it should be 30% coolant to distilled water. Then of course you've got the blocked radiator stories (get that serviced in Klang), the inoperative fan issue (make sure they're ok) or the radiator cap concern (maintain the standard 0.8 bar - its suppose to work, change it any higher you might blow the pipes etc!!) Hemmmm, what else, oh yeah, you could also be having a blown head gasket like my case, after starting the engine, with radiator cap open, there are lots of bubbles coming up to the surface.... it was breathing, and during boost operation, the water of course got a little boost too, hence the water reaching very very high temperatures..... and finally smoking too..... anyhow, hope yours is just idling too little...... idle a little longer before shutdown and try to listen..... all the best

 

[oblivion]

Hi,

Great suggestions all. I am leaving my car for 3 mins now. it seems fine. I doubt there could be a blocked pipe or any leakage as my temperature does not go up during driving.

i really hope that it is just the cool down period and nothing really drastic.

Just had the AC system fixed and that was quite heavy on the wallet already :P
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