16v losing water, help

[coolspot007007]

hi, my 16v is losing a little water every day (have to top up from Min to Max every 2/3 days) since i flushed the coolant system. I checked all the hoses, and there were no visible signs of a leak. i jacked the car up and the water is running from above, onto the subframe and droping down, its been leaking onto the side of the sump, and towards the exhaust manifold too. Is there a pipe around there somewhere, as i could only trace the one from the rad so far towards the engine. I tried some rad weld, which seemed to slow it a bit. Any help appreciated.

 

[wongy008]

i had a leak from flushing out coolant.your best bet is to check the pipes going back to the header tank mine was leaking from these

wongy

 

[Matbrown]

Look at the corner of the block nearest the header tank as they are prone to clogging up with sh*t from the water and eating through the head gasket.
This is very likely if your water was a rusty brown colour before you flushed it out.

Mat.

 

[coolspot007007]

water was surprisingly quite clear, will check the corner of the block in morning, sure i didnt see anything tho, seems to be something too high to see from underneath, but too low from above

 

[Matbrown]

Look towards the starter motor!

Mat.

 

[Ben j]

and its coming from the back of the engine, exhaust manifold side?

 

[coolspot007007]

It seems to be coming from the exhaust manifold kind of area but around the drivers side, kind of below the power steering resivoir, but down about a foot. From above at the front, rear and sides theres no sign of moisture, so its either squirting a good way or running down inside the subframe somewhere. I had a good feel around for moisture, all i could feel was on or very near the sub frame near the back, of the bay, in front of the CV boot, where you cant see. Its hard to describe the exact positon sorry.

 

[coolspot007007]

when i said exhaust manifold area, drivers side, i meant round by the wing, as opposed to the back of the bay

 

[chuckie]

Should i be worried if the water in my header tank is rusty orangy brown in colour??

Chuckie

 

[BRUN]

well id flush it to be on the safe side if your water is orange

 

[Ben j]

right , then this happened to me over christmas... theres a core plug below the exhaust manifold which had rusted through, u cant see it unless u know exactly where it is and even the its still hard. as it drips it runs down back of the block making it seem like its coming from elsewhere, thats why u cant see where its coming from.

 

[coolspot007007]

Ben, was it loosing a lot and did the problem get worse? cos mine hasnt (for now) ive had a plug go on my RT and it got rapidly worse over about a week,plus it was overheating, whereas the 16v isnt. How much to get it sorted?

 

[Ben j]

it did get worse to the point of no water could be put in. cant remember how much to get fixed. ( i had soo many problems over christmas i couldnt keep track! ) but it was about £3 for a core plug from renault.
ya manifold does have to be removed to be fixed though.

 

[coolspot007007]

For the moment it seems to have stopped When i had the leak on the RT i was carrying 4-6 litres of water in bottles for a 2 mile journey!