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[Richard A]

Engine oil fine, coolant 50/50 mix looks good, HBV changed last year and looks dry, no hose leaks showing. 147,000 miles on the clock, the engine runs like a Swiss watch, would tick over at 600rpm all day without any hesitation. The car is running better than ever.
Problem :- lose about 100/150ml of coolant 'every' time I use the car, 10 miles, 40 miles or 100 miles.
Where should I be looking, I am at a loss.  :-/
regards
richard a

[ians]

Hi Richard,
Try shining a torch under the front of the plenum - you can just see the area around the thermostat and may see glistening if it is wet.

[v6coop]

Any sign of it dripping from anywhere under the car? ie droplets on the two bolts on the bottom of the bellhousing? If so worth considering the stainless steel coolant tranfer pipe where it joins the block to fill the oil cooler chamber at the back of the engine. This has an o ring that compresses and can leak over time. Also coolant bridge seals just above the transfer pipe. Other point is the water pump, same issue with 'o' ring leaking or even the shaft if it's never been changed before (but obviously front of engine). Failing that less likely to be head gasket or head core plug.

[Richard A]

Update:- removed left-hand plenum, looking in and to the right is a small amount of a hard pinky/orange emulsion, but not much.
No leaks a the bottom of the engine, just a small drip of oil on both of the bottom bellhousing bolts. Used a mirror to look in the awkward places (like everywhere on a Omega engine) but no coolant drips or marks. Water pump changed with timimg belt back in October at 130k.
Radweld ??
regards
richard a

[v6coop]

Update:- removed left-hand plenum, looking in and to the right is a small amount of a hard pinky/orange emulsion, but not much.

Sorry Richard what do you mean by left hand plenum? The plenum chamber to me is the grey piece on the very top of the engine with the black Eco breather box on it so not left or right handed. What exactly did you remove?

[Richard A]

Sorry the left hand pipe that fits on the throttle housing.  

regards
richard a

[feeutfo]

ooh now here we are again. The good old leak issue.
In order of nuisance .
1 hbv
2oil cooler cover plate/t stat, basicklly all in the v.
3water pump at front run by cam belt.
4/5 metal coolant pipe at back of v/engine down the back, core plugs on cylinder heads at back.

Basically if its not Hbv then its plenum off and have a look in the v under the  manifold/fuel rail. while that is off have a VERY good look round the back of the engine esp the coolant pipe and core plugs. Cant remember if cam belt cover has to come off to see round water pump but i imagine it does.

Ps, if you find nothing in the v and its not water pump, its up to you how far you go with it but at that point i would seriously consider leak potion of some sort. Coolant pipe and core plugs are a mare in my book.

[Richard A]

Thanks for all the advise. I know this issue is a regular, it's happened to me twice before, each time you fix it only for the same symptom to reappear some months later. Is there a strong 'dye' that can be added to the coolant, it would make the location of a leak a lot more obvious, just a thought.
regards
richard a

[feeutfo]

Thanks for all the advise. I know this issue is a regular, it's happened to me twice before, each time you fix it only for the same symptom to reappear some months later. Is there a strong 'dye' that can be added to the coolant, it would make the location of a leak a lot more obvious, just a thought.
regards
richard a

Maybe i an missing something here, i have seen mention of this before but why a dye? its already pink, and water where there should be none... Is that not clue enough?
Ps i forgot the coolant bridge. Whoops.

[philhoward]

Could it be a simpler problem like the expansion bottle/cap?

[v6coop]

Richard

I would suggest you look in the 'valley' and see if there is any sign of leaking. I had a rapid water loss that was improved by a new coolant transfer pipe O ring and new dowty washers on the coolant bridge. However this did not stop the leak and I continued to lose half the header tank every week or two. I thought I had a leaking head gasket as I was also experiencing a lot of mayo in the filler cap. So I took the plunge and took the heads off. Having removed the nearside head I found a leaking core plug behind the DIS bracket





I don't think the HG was leaking but it would have been impossible to resolve it without removing the head anyway and now I have additional peace of mind. If I knew for sure that it was a core plug I would probably have tried using an additive to seal it, but look to see how green (or orange) your valley is first would be my recommendation.