Coolant leak

[Richybaby]

Hi All,

Removed the car from the garage on the weekend, noticed a stain on the garage floor, hardly anything just a discoloured damp patch, on closer inspection of the car found traces of coolant along the underneath of the rad, wiped it all away and can't see any trace as to where it is coming from, and so far hasn't returned, have't been able to get under the car properly to have a prober look yet, but so far looking from the top and bottom as best I can I can see to traces af any leaks, can't see any noticable loss from expansion tank and no effect on the running of the car, temp normal any ideas?? anyone had anythnig similar??

Any info much appreciated, Cheers, Rich.

[rev-erend]

They often leak along the sides of the rad.. also check the pipes for leaks..

Last resort is a pressure test..

[TVR 3X]

I can bring a pressure tester to BBWF if anybody wants to use it.

Russ

[jmorgan]

Found mine by cleaning the rad with whatever getting all the road muck off etc. One good blatt and check for the leak. Traced to an otter seal that time.

[KJR]

In my experience a pressure test will not always find a leak.

18 months after a recor my rad started leaking again. Took it out and had it pressure tested and they could not find a leak. Put it back in the car and it still leaked. Three + years on it is still leaking.

To my very inexperienced eye the way the rad is fitted to the car it becomes part of the chassis/body. When the chassis/body flexes so does the rad.

KJR

[pwd95]

Bring it up the house here Rich. We'll put it up on stands & have a good rummage.

[grahamw48]

KJR said:

In my experience a pressure test will not always find a leak.

18 months after a recor my rad started leaking again. Took it out and had it pressure tested and they could not find a leak. Put it back in the car and it still leaked. Three + years on it is still leaking.

To my very inexperienced eye the way the rad is fitted to the car it becomes part of the chassis/body. When the chassis/body flexes so does the rad.

KJR

Good point...would be easy enough to mount in some kind of rubber bushes.
Wasn't the mini rad mounted that way ?

[Richybaby]

pwd95 said:

Bring it up the house here Rich. We'll put it up on stands & have a good rummage.

Thanks V. much Wyn, might take you up on that if I can't track it down, keep you posted. Cheers guys.

[ferlin]

Might seem simple but check top hose connection through gap between front panel and bonnet.Mine was seeping around here and bugged me for ages!

[TVRleigh_BBWR]

The leak on my rad was very very small, but did show up with 20 PSI.

I found a slight leak on one of the hose's on the 400SE on Friday, only showed up at 10 PSI.

If want make you own DIY tester, get a old foot pump. cut the valve adaptor of the end.

Swap the cap's round so the blanking plate is on the header tank. use a hose joiner to join the overflow hose to foot pump.

you can then pump the system up.

• *** Remember to take the cap off very very slowly *****