Have a front caliper hanging up on my '85 Brat which is naturally causing the engine to run a bit hotter than normal. While the electric fan works I noticed that after I park it and shut off the motor I have coolant pushing out of the radiator overflow hose onto the ground. The radiator was professionally cleaned last year and I'm sure the caliper replacement will cure the overheating. But I got to thinking why isn't there an overflow bottle on these? Has anyone retrofit one in? I think I'm going to get one from an EA82 and throw it over on the inside of the drivers fender where my evap canister used to be. Anyone see any problems doing this?

I added an overflow bottle to my '83 wagon so long ago I can't remember when.

 

Still works perfect today.

 

More importantly, replace the caliper-even if with a used one. If you let it go much more, your car will become un-driveable=won't move.

 

My 2 bucks

I added an overflow bottle to my '83 wagon so long ago I can't remember when.

 

Still works perfect today.

 

More importantly, replace the caliper-even if with a used one. If you let it go much more, your car will become un-driveable=won't move.

 

My 2 bucks

 

+1. Get the caliper fixed. If it is a newish caliper and its hanging up chances are they didnt put enough grease on the slide pins. Its a 15 minute job to do and you dont need to disconnect the brake line. I had just bought new front calipers from Rockauto and had a caliper hang up on me like that. Once it cooled down i pulled it apart and there was barely any grease at all on the pins. I put a good film of grease on and problem solved.

 

As far as your cooling system is concerned..if everything is working correctly you dont need an overflow. The system will keep what coolant it needs. It does not require the coolant to be right up to the top but it will come close. How is your radiator cap? If its not holding enough pressure that could be the source of your lost coolant.

Edited February 25, 201016 yr by hatchsub

Cap is new/good. Visually confirmed it comes out of the overflow hose. Yep, going to swap the caliper soon. Probably will throw a new hose on it too as long as I'm in there.