Coolant Loss????

[Blackie_No1]

Ok my car seems to use roughly half a pint a week of coolant, there is now mayo on the oil cap or signs of water on the dipstick, she doesnt appear to be putting out white smoke from the exhaust and i cant see any obvious signs of leakage from a quick look around the engine, any ideas guys??

The temp gauge still aint working so i cant tell whats happening that way and there seems to be a constant supply of heat through the heater(i keep it on to ensure the engine doesnt overheat)

[JOSEMI]

YOUR HEAD GASKET IS GONE M8, AND WITH NO TEMP GAUGE YOU MAY SEIZE THE ENGINE

[fowler]

Agreed stop driving it you might of even craked the block !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JOSEMI]

Exactly... That 'mayo' in the cap is the actual gasket, and if you have a crack the the oil or the water may be mixing in... quite an issue

[Steviec]

I think he may have meant 'there is no mayo on the oil cap'.
Just a bit of a typo.

I could be wrong....

[JOSEMI]

youre right, it looks like a typing err... I should've read slowly (I'm at work and can't stop thinking about cars...)
Although water loss still no good... crack somewhere ?? I heard it happens on old E30's, although I never want to think it can be true ...

[Andy_magic]

I think he meant "no mayo"

There are a few places that leaks can occur that aren't easy to spot.

Water pump seal

Water heated throttle body unions

Back of the head heater pipes

leaky drain plug on rad (if fitted, mine is currently leaking here)

Heater control valve (you will probably smell this in the car if there is antifreeze present in the water)

What I do when diagnosing cooling system problems is get the engine fully warmed up, a decent drive of 10 miles or so and then stop the engine.

After 30 minutes, undo the rad cap. If there is pressure present then the leak is low, the cooling system will only hold 15psi absolute max.

Get a spare rad cap and bodge an old tyre valve into the top, pump the system up and listen for leaks, dont go wild and stick 100PSI in with your electric tyre pumps guys!

HTH

[Brianmoooore]

Make sure your rad pressure cap has a yellow disc on the bottom.

[doug325i]

I know it seems to obvious but in the past I have had loads of cars that lose coolant -

You could try a radiator leak stop first off, just buy some stick it in and if you stop losing coolant youve found your problem... and fixed it.

Sometimes leaks are hard to spot, especially slow ones.


Doug

[chippenham_touring]

check all your hose clips are tight, they slacken off after a while and you can't always see a visible leak.

[Blackie_No1]

[quote="Steviec"]I think he may have meant 'there is no mayo on the oil cap'.
Just a bit of a typo.
[quote]

ur right mate, was a typo, sorry!!

And thanks, guys, i found a couple of pipe clamps were slack at the rad, have to check the rest!

[Blackie_No1]

Well you guys where right about the pipes/clamps! the loss had steadily been gettin worse since i fitted the airbox baxk into the car loosing the entire contents of the header tank in just over 10hrs!! But i found it quit easily this evening, in little light belive it or not, i have also discovered that i think the plumbing is wrong!!

It appears to be the skinny pipe that runs from underneath the Thermostat housing to the throttle body, where it is clamped, the clamp appears to be cutting into yhe pipe and is tearing it, the pipe also seems to be a little to big, which is why tha clamp is cutting it!! It also seems to be going to the top pipe of the throttle body wheres the diagram on www.realoem.com shows that it shud go tto the bottom pipe!!

[kam-325i]

It also seems to be going to the top pipe of the throttle body wheres the diagram on www.realoem.com shows that it shud go tto the bottom pipe!!

The small pipe from the underside of the thermo housing to the TB also goes to the top connection on mine........

[Blackie_No1]

I guess it dont really matter which way round it goes then??

[kam-325i]

I guess it dont really matter which way round it goes then??

No, as all it does is to warm up the TB/Butterfly to stop it freezing due the HUGE wind chill factor caused by the HUGE amounts of air passing by, not.