Newb here...! Coolant loss...

[Danny99]

Hi all. I have recently purchased a 1.4 sport mk2 ph1... I have noticed that it is loosing coolant quite quickly, but cannot see any external leaks. Also the temp gauge is usually on around the 1/4 mark, even when the engine is up to normal running temp, and also the fan doesn't seem to be kicking in at all.....

any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Jonz]

If it isn't coming out externally it must be going somewhere internally, have you checked for steam coming out of the exhaust or water in the oil?

 

[Danny99]

If it isn't coming out externally it must be going somewhere internally, have you checked for steam coming out of the exhaust or water in the oil?

How do I check for water in the oil? I couldn't see any steam coming out the exhaust

 

[Hodgins]

On my brothers old ph2 1.4, he was using water up,
Changed the thermostat, housing and temp sensor as it was all complete, and solved the issue,

Dont know if its the same engine in a ph1, theres little oil galleries that flow to the thermostat to cool the oil (at a guess) and the coolant in the 1.4 was turning dark, as it had a minimal amount of oil and water mixing,

New thermostat housing, oil change and coolant change and its been great

Edit: found a pic

In the housing theres a few seala that stop the two mixing, the seals on the old housing went flat and mixed

 

[Danny99]

On my brothers old ph2 1.4, he was using water up,
Changed the thermostat, housing and temp sensor as it was all complete, and solved the issue,

Dont know if its the same engine in a ph1, theres little oil galleries that flow to the thermostat to cool the oil (at a guess) and the coolant in the 1.4 was turning dark, as it had a minimal amount of oil and water mixing,

New thermostat housing, oil change and coolant change and its been great

Ok. Will try changing them. Thanks pal

 

[Hodgins]

They are a fair bit more expensive on a 1.4 compared to a 1.2
I mananged to bag a genuine renault one for £30 off ebay,
Seems they are around 40-50 quid which is a bit steep, but not too bad if you can trace it to that,

Not saying it is that or its common, but something to look at

 

[Danny99]

They are a fair bit more expensive on a 1.4 compared to a 1.2
I mananged to bag a genuine renault one for £30 off ebay,
Seems they are around 40-50 quid which is a bit steep, but not too bad if you can trace it to that,

Not saying it is that or its common, but something to look at

It's worth a shot, thanks pal. Will update the thread after I have done the work...

 

[LeeRS]

If you drain the oil you will see the water separate from the oil.

 

[Jonz]

It's worth a shot, thanks pal. Will update the thread after I have done the work...

Not to suggest you have been given wrong advice, but experience of draining my wallet has taught me to diagnose a problem before throwing parts at it and hoping it was the problem. Coolant loss is one of them problems thats a swine to diagnose as it gets pumped everywhere and could be lost at any point, some cheap and easy to fix while others are expensive and labour intensive. Personally I would check everything, starting with the more serious first:
Is there water in the oil?
Is there white steam coming out of the exhaust on start up after its been sitting overnight?
Is the cooling system becoming pressurised? When that happens it can chuck the fluid out of the expansion tank. If possible, run a chemical headgasket tester on the expansion tank.
Re-check everything for external leakage. Remember that it could be leaking from hidden places like the heater matrix behind the dash, or from the radiator which leaks on to the plastic tray under the bumper and is hot so will evapourate. It's more likely to spot signs of evapouration and cleaning than it is to spot the leak.

If the answer to any of the first three checks is yes, then it usually indicates failure of the thermostat housing, head gasket or the engine casing. If they are all negative and the only thing left is all the external leaking points, you can take your time in trying to find the leak as long as it's always kept topped up.

 

[Danny99]

**UPDATE**
I took the car to a local garage to get the problem diagnosed...
It turns out the water pump has given up the ghost, and was quoted £312 to get the pump and cambelt changed.
Don't want to be paying that on a 130k engine... What other options do I have?

 

[cs_dave]

Scrap or do it your self?

 

[Danny99]

Scrap or do it your self?

Don't really want to scrap it, as the bodywork is in good condition... And haven't got the knowledge to do it myself... Will any other engines fit straight in without to much messing about? It's a 1.4 8v, but they are going for silly money!!

 

[cs_dave]

Don't really want to scrap it, as the bodywork is in good condition... And haven't got the knowledge to do it myself... Will any other engines fit straight in without to much messing about? It's a 1.4 8v, but they are going for silly money!!

More messing than doing your belts mate

 

[da rok]

get urself a manual for the car, 8v engines are pretty simple to do belts on, follow the manual and you cant go wrong

 

[Jonz]

Depends how much you paid for the car, if it was only a few hundred quid then scrapping it and cutting your losses at a couple hundred quid could be worth more to you than the hassle of fixing it. That said, if you've got a decent collection of tools, waterpumps and cambelts arn't that expensive, I bought a gates cambelt kit for my 2.0 not so long ago for about £92 and aftermarket waterpumps start at something like £15. I would imagine for a 1.4 it would be less. Though I wouldn't usually like to say "just have a crack at a cambelt" since getting it wrong can result in bent valves and a scraped engine, if you were going to scrap the engine anyway, what do you have to lose? Fitting a new engine will cost you more than has been quoted to fix the original and will be significantly more effort.

 

[Hodgins]

The way i look at it, will £312 + scrap value get you a new car in as good a condition as you have now with a cambelt done?

If you were to get the belt done, you'd have a car that your happy with (as far as i know) and the belt being done is a worry off your mind and you dont have the hassle of buying a new car

Unless you had the car cheap and wasnt planning to keep it long then you could cut your losses and put the £300 towards something else lol

Thats how i'd look at it, but its all personal preference