Coolant pressure

J

Joez4

Member
 West Midlands
So I've recently replaced my water pump, radiator, and other bits of the coolant system, bled it so I get hot air from the heater etc but have noticed that after a drive the hoses are quite pressurised ie you can squeeze them and there isn't much give, the car gets upto temp never moves past the middle on the needle and the coolant temp on the hidden menu goes upto 98 max then lowers as the thermostat opens etc and the fan kicks in so everything seems to be working fine.

I've read that the coolant system runs at over 20 psi so I'm thinking maybe I've never noticed this before as the radiator and the expansion tank both had slight leaks reducing this pressure, or do I still have air in the system creating this high pressure?
 
It seems to be running really good, just don't know what it should be doing as normal as I've changed so many parts recently.
 
How full is your expansion tank?

If it’s over full you may have over pressure there?
 
After my first drive the level dropped abit, I filled it back to the max and then went out again today and I'll check it tomorrow morning.

When I first flushed the coolant in the summer I noticed it dropped a couple of times after drives then seemed to stabilise at the max level and held it there,

I only changed the radiator as it looked knackered and had a slight leak in the corner
 
How old is your expansion tank cap? It may be time to replace it, even if it looks good.

Also, don't fill your coolant at max. The tip of the red floater should be even with edge of your expansion tank opening. That's about where you want it. I don't know my BMW has such a weird design where it seems the floater should be all the way out for it to be considered full lol
 
Expansion tank cap is about two months old, I did think why they suggest it been filed to the top I've always filed it to that level, I did notice coolant residue around the cap after first drive but not second so it must have vented,
 
If the cap was leaking there would be no pressure. Honestly, every square inch of every pipe has 20 pounds pushing on it. It will be hard. I doubt you have any issue
 
I don't think i do have any issues, no indication to me that the system isn't working correctly, I just don't know what's normal and what's not and since I've replaced so many components recently I guess it's easy to think something isn't right, I mean to be honest every time I drive the car I'm looking out for lights on the dash and every time the car gets me somewhere and back I feel surprised almost
 
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