Hey all,

Got a coolant leak. I *think* its coming from the front of the engine, near the bottom. Certain that's where steam seemed to be coming from - Are there any hoses in that area that could have split? Course it could be coolant dropping onto the exahuast heat shield. Just wondered if there were any obvious candidates.

ANyone have any good diagrams of the engine bay with hoses etc?

Thanks

Pete

 

The bottom rad hose is located in the bottom right hand corner so might be worth checking that along with the rad it self.

 

Get it nice and hot and then jack it up and have a proper look, it should be obvious when the coolant is up to temp (better on a cold day)

 

no no no no no and no!!!!!

A small leak means something has a small hole in it, hose or rad. Putting load on the system could cause a total failure of the part, hose tends to pin hole then rupture, and being bottom hose you'll drop all your coolant in very very quick order if it goes. Coolant is the lifeblood of the engine and second only to oil, you can very easily goose your engine by over heating it if you drop your coolant everywhere.

Get it to a decent garage and they will be able to find the leak for you and advise repair (my advice is flatbed it to the garage just in case)

 

Ok keep your hair on, I am sure the first thing a garage would do is get the water up to temp, the OP classed it as a small leak i.e. not catastrophic & given that the OP (or a garage) would be stood observing the problem they would be able to stop the engine should the radiator decide to explode when the engine was run up to temp.

 

At the front near the rad or actually underneath the engine? The oil cooler is underneath between engine and oil filter, has several small hoses so thats another posssability to check.

 

Thanks chaps. Its not the Rad. Or as far as I can tell it not. It seems to be be coming just above the exhaust heat shield pretty centrally placed. As I say, the could be fluid leaking onto the heatshield though - But I didn't see any obvious candidates (had had a pin hole in a pipe before and it was immediately obvious where that one was!)
Coolant level is dropping so there one somewhere!.

Was worried it could be a head gasket at one point - but theres no indication that it is. Idling fine, no mayo, heaters fine etc.

 

Maybe the crossover pipe? Its a small metal pipe that takes coolant to aformentioned oil cooler. Has 2 hoses one on either end and a leak in that area probably would end up dripping onto the heatshields.

Good luck finding it!

 

On further inspection it's definitely underneath the engine. Just don't know where. It's not losing loads of coolant but a leak is a leak I guess.

 

Hmmm, how about some white sheeting / paper left under the car overnight - that might help locate it ?

 

i had the sam problem

just above the rad bottom hose there are 2 small pipes i think was from the water pump and this had a split in it

only let a small amount of water to drop on the exhaust when hot

replace all the hoses with the silicon set eclipse performance are selling in the group buy and job done

hope this helps