Where'd my water go?

[oharab]

I don't drive far to work, about 7 miles and it's early morning, so there's no traffic, so the PM doesn't really get chance to even warm up properly on a morning, so I don't know how long this has been a problem.
I've just driven into Leeds to get a dist cap & stuff from GSF (Who don't do HT leads for the 525 by the way!)
I get the bits I could and go back to the car and find big pool of water under the bonnet.
It seemed to be coming out of the cap, so I kinda thought/hoped that it was just because I'd not screwed it on tight enough when I topped up at the weekend.
I set off again, but the temp kept going up and up.
http://robotparade.co.uk/Personal/IMAGE_011.jpg
Not good.
I had to stop at the train station and get a bottle of water.
I carefully got the top off, still quite a lot of water in the system, but the temp was sky high. After I got the cap off, it took 1.5l easily. I had to then get home.
There was little traffic coming home, thank god, and with the heaters on full blast the temp was kept down well below the 1st notch.
When I got home, the tank was dry & I could take the cap off without any steam at all. Another 1.5l went in.
I then ran the engine for a good 10/15 mins on the drive. The gauge went up to the middle and stopped there. Only went over when I revved over idle, but not by far and it went down again when I stopped.
I had the cap off for a bit whilst the engine ran and expected to see water flowing from the top hose, but it wasn't. Should it have been?
Also, the fan seems to go all the time. Is this normal? It wasn't whizzing hard, but steadily. Should it get quicker as the engine heats up?
I'm not a mechanic, I'm sure you've got that by now, but I do what I can. If it makes a difference, I had the rocker cover off at the weekend to start looking at the valve clearences, but that shouldn't have affected anything, should it?
My other 1/2 is getting a bit twitchy now, she "doesn't want to be throwing money at this, we moved away from older cars for that reason."
I'm scared it's something like the head gasket. ANy thoughts? What's the best way to check the hg? Please give me some hope.

B.

[bullyd]

take off the oil filler cap and check for milky deposits, if the water isnt leaking onto the road it must be dissapearing somewhere and if its through the gasket into the oil then u would have a milky build up where the water and oil has mixed

[bullyd]

also if u run the engine with the cap off from start the water system wont build pressure so thats why it didnt gush out but dont do this for too long as the only thing that stops the water boiling in your engine is the pressure! where abouts are u if u are local to east anglia ill run a head gasket test for u.

[oharab]

When I changed the oil last Friday it was fine, no sign of anything other than well used oil.
Checked the cap today and no sign of anything, will check dipstick in the morning.

Unfortunately I'm in Yorkshire, but thanks for the offer.

Ben.

[uscharalph]

You might need to bleed the coolant and get it properly filled. Tighten but don't overly the expansion tank cap. Then you need to monitor the coolant level and the temperature needle and get back to this forum with how it's going. There are several things it could be. It could have just been that you were low on coolant or had air pockets and this caused overheating.

[oharab]

That sounds like a plan Ralph.
I don't think the car was looked after by the previous owner, so I'll do that first.
Anyone know where to get BMW spec coolant in the UK at a reasonable price?

[uscharalph]

That sounds like a plan Ralph.
I don't think the car was looked after by the previous owner, so I'll do that first.
Anyone know where to get BMW spec coolant in the UK at a reasonable price?
What kind of coolant is in your system right now?

[oharab]

Highland spring bottled water!

[uscharalph]

You just don't want to mix different types of coolant. Coolant should be mixed with distilled water.

[dacoyote]

Highland spring bottled water!

Even though "good" spring water may be good for humans... the stuff with all those minerials and stuff isn't so hot with the car.

-Charles

[oharab]

Any water was good, as there was a big puddle of it under the bonnet!
I will give it a good flush and bleed as Ralph suggests, using the proper stuff, no fear. I just wanted to get home!
B.