Coolant issues

[Jonff]

Had a search around the forum but couldn't really find a definitive answer.

I seem to be losing/using quite a bit of coolant, there's no visible signs of leaks, checked all around the hoses, around the water pump area and everywhere is dry. Next thought was possible headgasket failure but again no signs of this either, no white smoke from the exhaust, the engine doesn't over heat, no mayo around the oil filler cap and the coolant isn't oily.

Anyone have any other suggestions? I'm a bit confused to where the coolant is going.

 

[DaveDreads]

No puddles under the car then?

 

[Jonff]

Nope, no puddles and everywhere is completely dry.

 

[DaveDreads]

Have you beem topping it up and is the level still going down after?

 

[Riley!]

How much you loosing? Hows the seal on your header tank cap?

 

[Jonff]

Have you beem topping it up and is the level still going down after?

Yeahhh, was the 3rd time I've done it this morning.

How much you loosing? Hows the seal on your header tank cap?

Hard to put a figure on how much I'm losing cos it can vary. Roughly I'd say I'm having to top up from the min to the max line on a weekly basis but took the car out for blast last night and it managed to loose that amount (from the max line to the min line)

The seal on cap seems to be fine, no signs of coolant dripping down the outside of the header tank anyway.

 

[Clart]

I had this - get the engine warm, and then check the plastic screw half way down the right hand side of the radiator as you look into the engine bay. Mine was cross threaded and i bought a brass blanking plug which solved the problem.

 

[Jonff]

I had this - get the engine warm, and then check the plastic screw half way down the right hand side of the radiator as you look into the engine bay. Mine was cross threaded and i bought a brass blanking plug which solved the problem.

Ahhh cheers mate, I'll check that over.

 

[jesus]

Is that the white blanking plug? I had that on my 172, had to get new radiatior cowelling as I didn't think of putting in a brass blanking plug.

 

[Jonff]

Right, I've sourced the leak. Where the hose attaches to the bottom of the radiator is soaked, problem is I'm not sure if it's the hose or the radiator at fault because the bottom of the radiator is wet too. Is there anyway of testing the radiator for leaks without removing it?

 

[Jonff]

Replaced the coolant hose which I thought was leaking today. It was the large one that connects to the water pump, lower rad, thermostat housing and heater matrix and did a full coolant change. Reason I suspect this was the hose causing the issue was because it had white residue marks on the hose. It hasn't solved the problem and the leak seems to be worse now because I'm getting puddles under the car.

I only seem to lose coolant when I drive the car, I've had the car running while stationary for quite a while and there's no leaks. Bit confused by this now.

 

[DaveDreads]

Where are the puddles in relation to the car, under the rad?

 

[Jonff]

Passenger side. I was thinking it maybe the radiator leaking but it's hard to judge exactly cos it's dripping on to the subframe then leaking out on to the floor. The white residue marks on the hose were higher up than the bottom of the radiator too.

 

[DaveDreads]

Well all I can tell you is my recent experiences with my radiator.

It suddenly started leaking one day from the left of the rad (drivers side),
I had a look and could see it was coming from the bottom, and that the front was also pretty much smashed in
with holes from where stones had hit it, it got worse over a few days obviously because of the expansion and contraction
making the leak/split worse.

But weirdly a day or two before it was due in for a new rad it had stopped leaking and leaving puddles. :S

When they took the old one out they said it fell apart in their hands,
they also said all the hoses were in good nick, despite white residue all over one of the main coolant hoses.

How old is your rad, and what kind of condition is it in from just looking at it?

 

[Jonff]

Not sure how old it is tbh and looking at it looks in fairly decent nick, no obvious dints in it and it looks relatively clean so it Can't be the original lol.

Guess replacing it is the next step.

 

[DaveDreads]

Right, I've sourced the leak. Where the hose attaches to the bottom of the radiator is soaked, problem is I'm not sure if it's the hose or the radiator at fault because the bottom of the radiator is wet too. Is there anyway of testing the radiator for leaks without removing it?

If you've replaced the hose then you must have a split in the rad somewhere,
not that i'm a mechanic but if it's still leaking from the same spot it must be the rad leaking.

How much coolant are you getting through atm, has it increased?

 

[Jonff]

Only replaced the hose today so again it's hard to put a measure on how much I've lost. It's dropped from the max line to half way inbetween the max and min line. I topped it up just thinking it was the coolant leveling out, but I've lost the same amount again. Also something else making it difficult to gauge is, when I drained the coolant alot of it went on the undertray and subframe, so the puddles under the car will be from that too.

 

[DaveDreads]

All you can do is top the coolant up and see if it goes down over the next week or so.

The fact that it's pissing it down constantly doesn't help,
could really do with a few dry days to see if any fresh puddles appear.

 

[Jonff]

We've been lucky with the weather here just recently. It's quite easy to tell where I've dropped coolant tbh. With it being fresh stuff you can see a bright green tinge in it on the floor lol. But yeah got the next couple of days off work so it'll give me a chance to give it a proper look over.

 

[DaveDreads]

I warm it up on the drive, check it over, then take it for a good blast,
park on the drive again and wait and see if it's leaking.

Just getting it up to temp on the drive isn't going to stress the parts as much as a good 30min boot full.

 

[not normal dan]

I warm it up on the drive, check it over, then take it for a good blast,
park on the drive again and wait and see if it's leaking.

Just getting it up to temp on the drive isn't going to stress the parts as much as a good 30min boot full.

Or if you can get a pressure tester on the cap an pressure rise it, that will soon show any leaks buddy

 

[Jonff]

Turns out it was my radiator. Had my front bumper off today and it was quite apparent I had a hole in it. The fan was warped too, so chances are that's been rubbing on the radiator and eventually put a hole on it. Replaced the radiator and all is well, so far anyway lol.

Cheers for the advise much appreciated

 

[DaveDreads]

Good stuff mate, glad you got to the bottom of it and got it sorted. :approve: