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spurious coolant leak


Paul K

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So for the last couple of weeks i have been loosing coolant, noticeable mainly from the heater suddenly deciding to run cold....so in the interim I've been topping up every couple of days with distilled water.....not a major problem, but because of the cold snap, i figured i may well be limiting the antifreeze properties......time to get it sorted!!

 

had a good look around all of the usual suspects for leaks, top bottom rad hoses, the rad itself..everywhere...and no obvious evidence of leaks.....no coolant stains or anything on the drive.

 

i was beginning to fear the worst...head gasket :(

 

anyway

 

so after returning from work last week and had been driving in the M25 carpark for about 2 hours, popped the bonnet when I got home....well, i could hear this faint but noticable whistle, like an old fashioned kettle going off.......had a good look around to see if i could spot the source...nope nothing visible :angry:.

 

so after a bit of youtubing, and googling....decided system needed a pressure test....

 

so onto ebay, and purchased a fairly cheap pressure testing kit  £37 with free postage!! and ordered some new coolant

 

so drained and refilled radiator, topped the reservoir up to max line and connected pressure tester.

 

got close to the correct testing pressure as detailed in the workshop guide (23psi), then the noise happened....i could hear liquid coming out...

 

quick check of all the hoses and rad...nothing....break out the iphone light..have a good look where i could here the whistling coming from the previous time.....aha...the culprit located!!!

 

arrowed in the picture...the small pipe under the plenum...the clip was in the wrong place and not actually clamping the pipe (you can actually see that it looks too far back down the pipe )

 

relocated clip...retest..pressure holds!!

 

top up lost fluid, then go through the long and boring task of removing airlocks!!

 

anyway...all sorted!! :yahoo:

 

so if anyone in the South East wants to borrow a cooling system pressure tester..let me know   I have one!!

 

 

 

 

 

pressure tester.jpg

leak.jpg

Edited by Paul K
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  • 2 years later...
On 13/12/2017 at 10:58, Paul K said:

 

Where did you connect up your pressure tester? Did you connect it on the expansion tank or onto the radiator?

 

Because the expansion tank has a hole in the top of it to release air, I was wondering how this would hold pressure?

 

Also, under what section of the workshop manual did you find these instructions? Great job by the way with the fix

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