Coolant loss

[jelevents]

Noticed the dreaded hot coolant smell on Saturday and found coolant on the under tray, so whipped of the plastic rad cover and looks like leaking cap so gonna pick one up from the fish tomorrow on my way to Wales, camping.
Fingers crossed it's just the cap as heard common failure VXR Ro.

[snowwolf]

Hopefully is a simple fix for your trip, double check under big black pulley on water pump

[jelevents]

Cheers Snowy, pump looks ok, not going camping in the ro, got a Focus estate for that, which only just fits all the gear in as the mutts take up all the back seat

[jelevents]

Arrrrrgggghhh! Fitted my new rad cap and went for a run, got back and could smell coolant again, looks like still coming from rad cap area all wet and running down rad, hope it's not over pressurising head gasket?
No signs of head gasket, no misfire,no smoke,oil clean.
Will do a compression check and see, anybody else had same problem?

[IXLR8]

air lock possibly???

[L2VXR]

Is the hose from the rad cap to the expansion bottle on the passenger side conected , it could have come adrift as i think it only pushes on.

[jelevents]

Yes I'm sure it is but will double check, just thinking now if that hose or the expansion tank is blocked might be the issue,
Will check it out, as I think highly unlikely (hopefully) it's a head gasket

[jelevents]

Mmmmm more I think about it if the expansion tank/coolant reservoir is gunked up or pipe to it is blocked then the coolant can't get in when it expands so will come out of the cap.
Hoping this is my problem and it's gonna be easy fix.
Has anybody else ever had the tank out or found it blocked?

[L2VXR]

jelevents said:

Has anybody else ever had the tank out or found it blocked?

When i changed my coolant some time ago i found the expansion tank surprisingly dirty so removed it and flushed it out nothing was blocked but cleaning it out wont do any harm. the tank came out with out to much trouble from under the car with it jacked up slightly and i think i slacked of the dirt guard from the bumper to get a couple of bolts out.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[bigwheel]

The yellow coolant dipstick will give you a clue if the tank's dirty. The dipstick in my CV8 is clean as a whistle, low mileage, mind.
As a side note, I recently needed to pull out the windscreen washer pump and rubber filter screen behind it. Washers stopped squirting as the rubber filter had gunked-up with grey/black slime.

[jelevents]

L2VXR said:

jelevents said:

Has anybody else ever had the tank out or found it blocked?

When i changed my coolant some time ago i found the expansion tank surprisingly dirty so removed it and flushed it out nothing was blocked but cleaning it out wont do any harm. the tank came out with out to much trouble from under the car with it jacked up slightly and i think i slacked of the dirt guard from the bumper to get a couple of bolts out.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Sounds like the plan, as my dipstick has the same brown gunk as in your photo

[jelevents]

Update, good news pipe to expansion tank not blocked, bad news ran car tonight found rad leaking down side, so another trip to fish in order,
Still at least it's not head gasket.

[jelevents]

Well collected new rad from MF yesterday along with some new anti roll bar bushes as much easier to fit with rad out.
All went in well yesterday did little run, rechecked coolant level today and went out for a blast, all good.
So if this rad lasts another ten years, happy days