Strange gushing/watery/bubbly sound...

johnathan1

johnathan1

Supra =
Aug 19, 2005
5,056
1
36
36
Downey, California, United States
Tonight, I was driving into my carport, and went to honk at my cat (i know, weird) nothing happened, so i turned it off, popped the hood, and fixed the horn...well, while i was doing this, I noticed that the engine would make a bubbly, water-gushing sound, not too loud, but noticeable, it seemed to do this every 30 secs or so, it did it for like 5 mins, and then subsided.

I checked the upper radiator hose, and it was totally limp, and the sound seemed to be coming from the thermostat housing.

I suspect that it could be:

A: Thermostat
B: Water Pump (It was leaking coolant from around the water pump gasket because a bolt at the bottom was waaay loose, so i tightened it, and it stopped leaking. Maybe this could be it?)

The car isn't consuming any coolant, and it doesn't throw up or overheat, no temp. spikes either...although I have noticed that the temp. guage will go down about 2-3 notches when the car is shut down (during normal operating temp.) and then restarted, even when it has been off for only a minute or so...

Please help me! Thanks guys!
 
Bishop92t

Bishop92t

Supramania Contributor
Apr 18, 2005
773
0
0
USA
www.ma70.com
First off as soon as your car is warmed up it should have pressure in the system and you shouldn't be able to squeeze the upper radiator hose far. That's not a function of the water pump or thermostat, that's a function of heat expansion. Are you checking your coolant level via the overflow or via the radiator? You should be checking via radiator as the overflow bottle will sometimes not work properly if the coolant system is unhappy. If the car is still warm when you need to check, then use a large towel doubled over to remove the radiator cap safely. The coolant should be filled to the very top.

Also just a FYI :) Thermostat malfunction will either cause the car to take an extremely long time to warm up, or the car will overheat shortly (usally the first). Waterpump malfunction usually causes some noise, possibly a belt thrown, and overheating. A simple test for the water pump is to just remove the belt and clutch fan, turn the water pump by hand it should have a small amount of resistance and turn very smoothly. If you suspect t-stat malfunction just buy a new one, they're cheap.
 
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