coolant leak!!

[hipwell]

Well the car went for its mot with the coolant at the full mark like it has been for the past month with no leaks.

Got it home to find that the coolant is now slowly dripping from what i can see seems to be the t junction at the bottom hose which comes out of the radiator.

The bottle was at the mimimum mark and im not happy lol. All i can think is that when they were doing the emmissions test which it failed they were revving it to try and get the cat up to temperature and its found a weak spot under pressure and blown the hose.

Going to have a good look tomorow im just praying its not the radiator.

 

[Soot1e]

I wouldnt worry if it is the radiator, they only cost £62 for a new one. The bottom hose spider is an awful lot more, £180 If I remember. The emissions test failure will be be harder to diagnose whats wrong.

 

[hipwell]

I wouldnt worry if it is the radiator, they only cost £62 for a new one. The bottom hose spider is an awful lot more, £180 If I remember. The emissions test failure will be be harder to diagnose whats wrong.

That's crazy. A bit of rubber pipe more expensive than a rad lol.

Not going well for me at the moment lol

 

[Soot1e]

The bottom hose is big, it connects the thermostat , rad. heater hoses and water pump all in one piece. Would be better to buy a set of Samcos for the same money. The Rad can be bought at www.coolparts.com . Mine is non A/C not sure of yours though.

 

[hipwell]

Yeh ive seen them samcos kits.

is there no way of bodging the hose with sealent or something, im really running out of money now lol, needs a new exhaust soon as stock one is rotting.

 

[Soot1e]

You can buy hose bandages as a temp. fix but will not last long. Try ebay or a breakers for a replacement hose.

 

[hipwell]

You can buy hose bandages as a temp. fix but will not last long. Try ebay or a breakers for a replacement hose.

I'm still struggling to find the leak, had the engine warm and bled it ano now nothing leaking so I don't know what to do. I've bought some new coolant but there's no point me putting it in untill i've Found the leak.

 

[hipwell]

Well I'm not sure what's the problem now.

I've noticed that the bottom pipe coming out of the radiator is cold, wheras the pipe going in is red hot.

Also the coolant bottle, I thought that there should be coolant trickling back in through the top pipe, but nothing is hapening and the pipe is cool.

That mean the water pump may be shagged?

 

[Soot1e]

Water is not circulating your engine and radiator. Hot water circulates from the Thermostat bolted on the the gearbox end of the engine along the top hose, into the rad. out through the bottom hose and into the water pump then around the engine. A second cct. comes off the bottom hose and goes to the heater matrix. Looks like your Thermostat is stuck shut or the water pump is u/s. Easiest thing to try is removing the thermostat and heat it up in a saucepan of water to check the stat is opening the valve. If you are doing short journeys then the the water doesn't have time to heat up thats why no leaks have showed up yet. In the garage when it was run till really hot, water was bieng forced out of the pipe connections.

 

[sideways danny]

take the rad out and see if you have flow through it. From your description it sounds blocked

 

[hipwell]

Hmm don't think the rad is block, I gave it a good run earlier and te bottom pipe got warm.

Surely if the thermotat was nackered it would overheat? The needle never goes over halfway.

But now the leak is a drip however only happens when in packed up a curb lol, but the drips are like in line with the passenger side foglight a few inches back under the car, so around the rad.

But when I look in from the engine bay everything is warm lol.

 

[Soot1e]

You'll have to jack the front of the car up, put it on axlestands and run the engine so everything gets hot, then see where the water is coming from. Even when cold you should see some water stains where it is leaking.

 

[hipwell]

ive just took a pic of where the stains are. Its crazy though because i can sit on the drive with the engine running for ages staring into the engine bay and nothing leaks out. But as soon as i get back from a drive there as these splashed as seen in this picture on the bottom.

 

[Soot1e]

Are you saying the fan mounting has water marks on it? It's beginning to look like the rad leaking. Have you tried driving the car hard until it is really hot then stopping and quickly opening the bonnet to see leaks. Or disconnect the wiring to the rad sensor and leave it running, it will get hotter than normal then start to show up leaks.

 

[hipwell]

nah, if you look in the centre of the picture you can see a splash mark on the bottom of the pannel. like directly below the big pipe.

yeh ive tried that and still see nothing lol untill about an hour after ive drove it.

 

[Soot1e]

Tricky one then, I would just wait until it becomes more obvious what is leaking. I can't suggest anything else.

 

[hipwell]

yeh thats pretty much what mechanic next door said because its going to be hard to find it properly without stripping the front of the car and having a look at the rad.

 

[Soot1e]

Leave it a while then when it gets worse stip the front down, it's easy if you don't have a/c.

 

[hipwell]

Leave it a while then when it gets worse stip the front down, it's easy if you don't have a/c.

I do have air con tho.

How easy is it to strip the front? Can't find a guide anywhere

 

[Soot1e]

You don't need a guide,
Lift the front of the car enough for you to see around the bottom of the engine bay.
Remove engine undertray if you have one.
Remove front grill. The top bit.
Remove front bumper.
Remove slam panel.
Remove Air filter box.
Unplug & Remove Electric fan. Unplug the fan resistor pack fitted in the fan shroud.
Don't removed the a/c condensor or any other parts of the a/c sytem. You should be able to work around this but secure them so you can run the engine and look for your leak.

 

[Soot1e]

You don't need a guide,
Lift the front of the car enough for you to see around the bottom of the engine bay.
Remove engine undertray if you have one.
Remove front grill. The top bit.
Remove front bumper.
Remove slam panel.
Remove Air filter box.
Unplug & Remove Electric fan. Unplug the fan resistor pack fitted in the fan shroud.
Don't removed the a/c condensor or any other parts of the a/c sytem. You should be able to work around this but secure them so you can run the engine and look for your leak.