Well, Mothers Day really wasn't fun for me. I drove to my parents place today (relatively short journey) with no dramas, I pulled up in their driveway and left the car running as usual to cool down the turbos. I went in their house and came back out a few minutes later to shut the car down. As I'm walking towards the car I hear it start making a noise I've never heard before -- a bit of a gurgling sound and airconditioner sound combined. Needless to say, this immediately got my concern and I opened the bonnet and shut the engine off. I later noticed a puddle of coolant under where the overflow bottle is, the overflow bottle was empty, and the radiator was low. What the hell is this? The levels were fine before I left and, although there's at least one minor leak I know of (opposite side of engine of overflow tank), I've never had this sort of scare before. Plus replacing the coolant (over a litre) hasn't revealed any obvious new leaks. Any thoughts on this please? I'm certainly not going to risk driving it again before I have this resolved.
it could be.... a pin hole in one of the hoses which only leaks under pressure, best way to see where this is comming from is to do a pressure test, it will reveal where the leak is comming from, dont keep driving your car untill you fixed it. In my experiancec it was never enough to change just one hose as pressure looks for the weakest point and on these old cars there are many of them.........
2nded on pressure test ---- and do it soon! pinholes in hoses quickly turn into holes which quickly turn into empty cooling system which quickly turns into blown motor...
Re: 2nded on pressure test ---- and do it soon! As a victim of a blown motor from a coolant leak, I cant stress enough to get it checked ASAP!
Thanks for the advice, guys. I've had it pressure tested previously and there didn't seem to be anything worth worrying about. I'll certainly have it thoroughly checked again before I drive it though -- I'll tow it to my mechanic. BTW, how important is it to stick to the same brand of coolant? I've been doing small top ups for a while and I'm now concerned that my have exacerbated the situation.
