200ml of coolant in 500 miles....is this normal?

[Alastair B]

I have just topped up the coolant with about 200ml of water to raise it to the max level marker in about 500 road miles. The engine was not running when I topped up. I have no overheating problems or milky oil etc. or any damp patches in the garage, everything seems to be OK. Just wondered if this topping-up amount is normal and nothing to worry about? It's the 2nd time I've done this.

 

1.6K roadsport, 1999 car, with heater. I have not broken into the coolant system to cause any airtraps etc.

 

Alastair

[Stationary M25 Traveller]

No - shouldn't be using any. Unless you are losing it through a leaky hose connection under pressure (out on the road), suspect the beginnings of head gasket problems ?

 

 

[Dickie Normuss]

I had similar issues once, losing a small amount but nothing significant. It took me weeks to find it as it only happened on the move, under pressure. It was a small weep from one of the cooling hoses. If you can it be worth getting the car on stands and having a look from underneath, sometimes it's more obvious.

 

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Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere

[paul abrahams]

Look for tell tail signs of dried up coolant inside the engine bay, mine was pink and easy to pin point back to a bolted connection from the water rail to the block. Have a good look prior to a blat then pull over at regular intervals and wip the bonnet off to keep inspecting. Good luck

[Stationary M25 Traveller]

'Whip the bonnet off' ..... ooh err missus ! Your name isn't Freud is it

 

 

[stephen grant]

 

Alaister - whip the silencer and collector off and just check if the inside of the primaries are wet.

 

Regards,

 

stephen

 

[Jason Plato]

whip the engine out and fit a duratec 😬

 

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[martinwhitcher]

could be leaking from the inlet manifold gasket, if you have green rubber gasket this is the updated one, i think it was the black one that is prone to leaking on the right side of the manifold. worth a look.

 

Martin

 

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[John Howe]

Assuming neither hoses or radiator are to blame, then the three most likely places to find a leak are:

a) Inlet manifold - as already mentioned

b) Water rail, were it bolts to the head by no. 4 primary

c) Heater matrix - assuming the car has one fitted- remove the plastic pins and take the cover off.

 

... as previously mentioned, look for the tell-tale stains of dried anti freeze.

 

Check header bottle and dipstick for "mayonnaise" as possible sign of a head gasket on the way out.

 

 

JH

Deliveries by Saffron, the yellow 230bhp Sausage delivery machine

[stephen grant]

Mine was an inlet manifold jobby. If it is leaking there, it might well be blowing through cylinder 1 into the exhaust - the rubber gasket separates no.1 from the waterway that vents air back to the expansion tank. The plenum warps a little with time and the black gasket isn't thick enough to compensate. Hence the question about whether the primaries are wet, since that's where the coolant might be going (if it isn't dribbling down the side of the block).

 

s

 

 

Edited by - stephen grant on 6 Oct 2008 10:58:09

[Neil_K]

Mine was the heater matrix, and the car was about the same age. It had just rusted though the inlet and outlet pipes turning them into a shower head. Annoying thing is that it 'looks' OK from the outside. A good way to test is the use the on/off cable to bypass the heater, then see if you're still losing coolant.

 

Where am I?

[Alastair B]

Thank-you for all your suggestions I will digest and consider my next move.

 

Just to add to this technical blog - A fellow 7 owner at work told me he had an identical problem and he attributed it to the max. mark on the square header tank being too high for the 'K' series set-up and this leading to an over-pressurised system and loss through pressurised vapour leaking through the cap. The loss self-stabilised when the coolant reached the seam moulding level and never went any further down.

 

Alastair

[skydragon]

I had a similar experience in that I once topped the expansion tank up a little bit too much (10 -15 mm too high against the max level) and then lost coolant via the tank cap (I noticed the coolant under the bonnet and on the chasis rails). Initially I panicked thinking it was HGF or something, but 500+ miles later, after keeping a close eye on it, the coolant level is exactly the same.

 

As long as I leave the coolant level no higher than the max line it's fine and stays at this level (that's why there is a max coolant level I guess ).

 

As an aside - I always have a load of water come out of my exhaust when starting and once when changing the exhaust over I noticed the inside of the primaries was wet. This again made me panic about HGF. But 500+ miles later it's still spews out water/vapour when starting and the coolant level is exactly as it was, with no loss whatsoever... so it can't be coolant coming out the exhaust but water from the combustion process.

[Gavin H]

I recently had a similar issue and it turned out to be the gasket on the water rail (to the block). Tell tale dried coolant on the block was the evidence, but it also has a tendency to run along the join line of the cylinder head to block, potetnially leading to misdiagnosis of HGF. Have you taken it to a garage for a hydrocarbon 'sniffer' test on the coolant? If water is getting into the cylinders, hydrocarbons will be getting into the water.

 

Check all water gaskets and hoses carefully before you consider taking the head off!