My car just did a wee...

Soldato
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Just drove my dad to the pub (Like a 1/4mile round trip) and as I pulled up in the car park noticed a light bit of steam coming from my bonnet, didn't think much of it so drove it back home.
When I got home I noticed the steam was worse and there was a snail trail of water down the road where I'd driven away so popped the bonnet and it's completely drenched under there with the steam mostly coming from the exhaust manifold.
There aren't any warning lights on in the car and it's driving as normal from what I an see, scared to drive it again incase it does damage to the car, what do people suggest?!

Last time I drove the car was last night when it was properly ****ing it down with rain, it's been sat still since, do you reckon it could just be rain water boiling off under the car?

Ta
 
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Soldato
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Check the coolant level in the reservoir once the engine has cooled.

There probably won't be any warning lights unless you have one for low coolant or the engine starts over heating.
 
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Just went out and checked the coolant, was a little down from the MAX mark but not much so topped it up. Started the car up and looked underneath with a torch and can't see any fluids dripping down but as soon as I turned the engine off there was more steam coming from near the exhaust manifold :/
 
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....milky oil on the filler cap... :( Is this 100% a sign of head gasket failure or could it be weather related? Seen a couple of mentions on Google about milky oil and cold weather but not much...

Hope this is going to be covered by the extended warranty I got with the car :(
 
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Soldato
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Not 100%, it can be condensation. Do you do a lot of short trips? Is your coolant a normal colour? No idea why you have water dripping onto your exhaust manifold, it's not coming from your washer jets is it? (It's the only thing I can think of that would leak down onto it?)
 
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It's rare it does more than say 15-20miles at a time if that's what you'd call short trips? Coolant seemed to be a normal colour too and I'm 99% certain my washers aren't leaking, going to examine tomorrow in better light and see if I can see any leakage from the rear (ooh err) of the engine.
 
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Short trips like 1-2 miles, condensation can sometimes build up as your engine doesn't have time to fully warm up.

Head gasket failure is not common on these engines, so I wouldn't worry too much at this point. If you were losing that much coolant to leave a line on the road, your expansion tank would be empty at the very least.
 
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Rubbish pic of the oil cap:
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm20/shauncr91/20121125_203400Custom.jpg

And you can see just how wet the engine bay was and the steam in these two pics:
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm20/shauncr91/20121125_191216Custom.jpg
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm20/shauncr91/20121125_190431Custom.jpg

Water trail, I don't know if this is coolant or what, but when I rains or I wash the car I often get water draining out from the doors so don't know if it could be that...
http://i50.tinypic.com/t4wto1.jpg
 
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Soldato
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Get the engine warmed up properly and start looking around the engine bay. Not sure about it coming off the manifold, could only be washer jet pipes leaking to cause that.

On my old ST i had a pipe around the back of the engine that started rubbing till it split and leaked coolant. But yes the doors and side skirts hold a rediculas amount of water after a good downfall of rain.
 
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Going to ring GK Group tomorrow and see about getting it looked at under warranty Rybo, hopefully they won't be arses as they've been good to me in the past. If they refuse ill battle it out because I see nothing in my warranty agreement about gaskets under stuff which isn't covered. Worst comes to worst ill contact Anthony and see what he has to say, might be able to install cams at the same time because I was looking at ordering some next week :)
 
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Yeah if Ford dont wanna know give Ant a ring, he'll suss it out.

Very rare for gaskets to go on the Duratec engine so early. Dont think it is classed as a wear n tear item though, so ford should replace it if you have warranty with them.
 
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