Disappearing coolant!

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Knobblywobbly

New Member
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51
Location
Wickham, Hampshire
I´ve just changed my radiator hoses to the ones with the remote thermostat and replaced the old green coolant with the pink stuff (flushed first of course). But now I am losing coolant somewhere and I can´t fathom out why. Here´s what I know:

1. No milkyness in the oil - just changed it prior to fitting the new hoses. Checked dipstick again today and oil is fine.
2. No sludge in coolant - just drained all the old stuff before replacing the hoses.
3. It does not loose coolant while parked up - no wet patches at all under the car when left overnight or all day at work. Coolant level the same in the morning as the night before.
4. Amount of coolant loss is not related to distance travelled or length of time the car is used - did 250 miles at the weekend and the level dropped from maximum to minimum; did 60 miles today and the level dropped from maximum to just below minimum.

So............. any idea where it´s going or am I being visited by the coolant fairy???
 
Agree it could be residual air.
Did you have the heater on max and the bleed screw out to fill?
Just done a K series HGF and its taken a couple of days runnin' round with the heater on max (in this weather - no blower tho') to get the last of tha air out.
OR
Another place the coolant goes that you can't see it is onto the carpet from the heater matrix, you didn't pull any of the heater pipes about doing the remote stat change did you?
OR
It ain't the cap on the tank gone duff or a split in the tank up by the cap?
Cap change is a cheap fix.
 
Last edited:
i replaced the colant on my missus' 206hdi a while back ( i was slightly greener then) and she was bannging down the road 1/2 hour into her day when 'bleep bleep danger will robinson'. It had dropped enough to throw a wobbly even though I had bled it though and run it for a good 20 mins. Air is a funny bugger.

Billy g
 
I had a very small leak which only occurred when the system was under pressure, it was where my new radiator hose connected to the radiator.
 
Thanks for the replies folks!

I changed to the new type hoss with remote thermostat as it appears to be a recommended mod in an effort to ward off hgf (which at 90k miles I haven´t had yet).
I did the bleeding by the book - blew through the little valve thingy, heater on max, both bleed screws out, etc. I did notice a "burbling" sound coming from behind the dash at one point but that has now stopped.

I´ll do a bit more bleeding and see if I can get any more air out. Is there any other way to ensure all the air is out of the system?
 
Hang on guys, he said nothing about overheating, just coolant loss. I would say its leaking somewhere from the new hoses under pressure. Also as its hot it tends to evaporate quickly and so difficult to identify where. My old Dad used to put soapy water around connections and look for bubbles. I would recheck connections and look for wisps of steam from a hot idling engine.
All these miles you did, what sort of speeds/ engine loads did you have? Also did you give the metal a good clean of the crud before fitting new hose?
 
do remember that old green coolant and new red oat coolant are not compatible, something in the new red ravages the seals on the head gasket, i think the unipart replacement is now orange not green, but without oat for the older engine
 
Skynet said:
Hang on guys, he said nothing about overheating, just coolant loss. I would say its leaking somewhere from the new hoses under pressure. Also as its hot it tends to evaporate quickly and so difficult to identify where. My old Dad used to put soapy water around connections and look for bubbles. I would recheck connections and look for wisps of steam from a hot idling engine.
All these miles you did, what sort of speeds/ engine loads did you have? Also did you give the metal a good clean of the crud before fitting new hose?
Click to expand...

Well I rechecked the hose connections and tightened them up a bit. The miles I covered were a mixture of slow town driving and 70mph motorway miles. I´ve been filling up between journeys for the last couple of days and topped up again this morning. I did over 220 miles again today, with a mixture of motorway and fastish A roads. Checked when I got home and found no coolant loss on this trip! I´ll keep checking every day though till I´m confident the leak has gone.

freelance said:
do remember that old green coolant and new red oat coolant are not compatible, something in the new red ravages the seals on the head gasket, i think the unipart replacement is now orange not green, but without oat for the older engine
Click to expand...

Oh dear! I was told by a Landrover dealer that if they were going to change the coolant they would be replacing it with the red stuff as they did it to all Freelanders, regardless of age. Do you think I should get the red stuff out sharpish and refill with the green???
 
If this advice does not work, you will need to perform the Rite of Exorcism. This is often practiced by some dealerships when faced with seemingly supernatural phenomena otherwise known as 'breakdowns'. The methods employed are usually the same but not necessarily performed in any specific order, you could intergrate some of the moves into your own ritual.

Walk around the car a number of times either clockwise or anti-clock wise mumbling specific explicits, followed by opening the front door and pulling the hood/bonnet latch; pressing all interior buttons and toggle switches sometimes helps. Open the hood/bonnet and peer into the enginebay at the motor with hatred burning in your eyes, followed by more chanting of explicits. Jiggle all unknown wires (more explicits),and twist off the washer bowl, power steering, and radiator overflow reservoir caps and peer inside (more explicits). Kick tires, slam doors and fiddle with the transfer knob, as I do. If the car starts after all this has been done, then the exorcism has been a success. If not, then it can't be possessed, but has some other electrical problem.
biggrin.gif
 
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