Loosing Coolant but not overheating

wammers said:

Don't worry it's a lot better than some of the English on here can manage.

Click to expand...

So true - it hurts

I had time the other day so I took off the fan and had a look at the water pump and as far as I could see there was nothing leaking from the weep hole or anything around the water pump.

I did notice some small dots on the fan but it wasn't really even across the fan and there wasn't very many, but it might have been oil as I have an oil leak from somewhere that I haven't looked at yet.

Almost a year old thread, but just in case someone drops by or still has the problem:

The expansion tank itself is known to crack and leak and the original part ESR2935 is replaced by part number PCF101410, probably a better design.

I was losing coolant over almost 2 years without being able to spot it. No smell from coolant and no water in the oil. The strange thing was that when I forgot to refill, it never became a real problem with overheating, the reason is of course that it only empties the expansion tank and there are a lot of fluid left in the rest of the system. Very difficult to detect a small leak since it dries up quickly, I found mine by coincident after idling for a while fixing something else and suddenly realized it was wet under the tank.

The tank is just about £20 and it takes less than 10 minutes to replace so if you have a leak like me you cannot find just replace it.

I also got an advice to replace the pressure relief cap on the tank regulary since it is known to stick and not let the steam out at the right pressure. This could be the reason for the tank cracking and it was also known to blow radiators and hoses. Not sure if the new tank part # has a better cap, could be that has been improved as well.

I'll also mention if you buy a new pressure cap, buy genuine. I've bought 2 britpart ones and 1 bearmach one and they've both snapped upon removal. Meanwhile my original cap has never managed to snap. I should have learned the first time...

Hi, keep an eye on the 2 small hoses that connect to the throttle body heater, they are known to seep or even the heater body itself. Also have a look at the rear of the engine because it could be the valley gasket weeping.

PPP38vouge said:

Hi, keep an eye on the 2 small hoses that connect to the throttle body heater, they are known to seep or even the heater body itself. Also have a look at the rear of the engine because it could be the valley gasket weeping.

Click to expand...

I had a pin hole in one of those that was very hard to spot. It was the bottom hose and finally really showed itself by bursting.

hi, one of the easiest ways to locate where its leaking is to get a large piece of cardboard new if possible and once you've got the car and coolant hot, park it up and place cardboard under engine bay on ground ( complete area if possible ) and leave it to cool down for an hour or two and then check cardboard for water stains !!!!!! mark the cardboard to nearest point of the tyres so you can then judge where the location is !!!!!! it worked for me in july last year and unfortunately one of pistons had gone , wasn,t cheap fix sadly ,,,,, hope this helps and hope your engine is ok ,cheers mozz :crazy_driver::crazy_driver::crazy_driver:

mozz smith said:

hi, one of the easiest ways to locate where its leaking is to get a large piece of cardboard new if possible and once you've got the car and coolant hot, park it up and place cardboard under engine bay on ground ( complete area if possible ) and leave it to cool down for an hour or two and then check cardboard for water stains !!!!!! mark the cardboard to nearest point of the tyres so you can then judge where the location is !!!!!! it worked for me in july last year and unfortunately one of pistons had gone , wasn,t cheap fix sadly ,,,,, hope this helps and hope your engine is ok ,cheers mozz :crazy_driver::crazy_driver::crazy_driver:

Click to expand...

i agree with the above but one addition.

do it cold with a modified pressure cap and charge the system to 15 psi with a footpump , i do this all the time as if its hot the leak could evaporate not drop to the floor .

but the above method will show 90% of leaks .

you can modifiy a old cap with a Schrader valve. if you have some mechanical know how and if your on here you most probaly do have some knowhow /