Should I be worried
Discussion
That depends on if it loses the water you put in unusually fast. If you over fill it it will pee out the excess when hot. Things to check are:
1 Any sign of oil in the water or the other way round, that will point to head gaskets or cylinder liner cracks.
2 In my experience a headgasket failure to a water jacket usually results in a warm up so fast as to be impossible, like 2-3 mins to get to normal and not long after way above normal. This is the result of combustion gasses being forced into the coolant. This is a sure sign of headgasket trouble, or in the case of a couple of engines I have worked on, craked valve seats leaking to water.
If number 2 applies, you can be pretty sure of wahts wrong, if its number 1 you just need to monitor the water consumption to get a clue.
I assume you are in the UK and in the current weather mine stays pretty cool and the fans run only after a good few mins in standing traffic, although as an aside it ran much hotter on the original MBE ECU that it does on the emerald. This suggests to me that either the MBE runs very weak around idle and low load/RPM or rather retarded. This would make some sense as it helpd the emmisions. But as I say that's just an aside.
A failed stat could also cause water boil off, but a very (very) fast warmup from cold points to head gaskets in my experience.
Jon
1 Any sign of oil in the water or the other way round, that will point to head gaskets or cylinder liner cracks.
2 In my experience a headgasket failure to a water jacket usually results in a warm up so fast as to be impossible, like 2-3 mins to get to normal and not long after way above normal. This is the result of combustion gasses being forced into the coolant. This is a sure sign of headgasket trouble, or in the case of a couple of engines I have worked on, craked valve seats leaking to water.
If number 2 applies, you can be pretty sure of wahts wrong, if its number 1 you just need to monitor the water consumption to get a clue.
I assume you are in the UK and in the current weather mine stays pretty cool and the fans run only after a good few mins in standing traffic, although as an aside it ran much hotter on the original MBE ECU that it does on the emerald. This suggests to me that either the MBE runs very weak around idle and low load/RPM or rather retarded. This would make some sense as it helpd the emmisions. But as I say that's just an aside.
A failed stat could also cause water boil off, but a very (very) fast warmup from cold points to head gaskets in my experience.
Jon
It's a closed system, you shouldn't lose any coolant at all, so something is wrong somewhere.
When mine was losing coolant it was the usual hairline crack on the radiator, take a look at the top corner on the passenger side of the car and see if you can see anything that looks like a calcium build up. Other than that, check underneath the reservoir tank for leaks, along with all the hoses. Also check the tray between the front of the engine and the radiator to see if anything is leaking on to that.
If none of that shows up anything, then it points towards a gasket leak somewhere, which isn't the best of news, but better to get it sorted now rather than later.
When mine was losing coolant it was the usual hairline crack on the radiator, take a look at the top corner on the passenger side of the car and see if you can see anything that looks like a calcium build up. Other than that, check underneath the reservoir tank for leaks, along with all the hoses. Also check the tray between the front of the engine and the radiator to see if anything is leaking on to that.
If none of that shows up anything, then it points towards a gasket leak somewhere, which isn't the best of news, but better to get it sorted now rather than later.
Far Eastender said:
Raw egg, they tested this on mythbusters and it did the job! 
Seriously though, if it does turn out to be a leak, and for the sake of your wallet i hope it is, then get it fixed rather than bodge it with radweld.
brakedust300 said:
Making we a little worried reading this, what are "normal" running temperatures? on a run mine is at about 70-80, in traffic it goes upto a max of 90! is this a problem?
Totally normal, but your temperature gauge will be lying to you anyway, so don't trust it 
Hooking up a laptop and the software will show you your true temperatures, first fan should kick in at 92, second at 95 (IIRC? been a while since I had reason to check))
trooperiziz said:
brakedust300 said:
Making we a little worried reading this, what are "normal" running temperatures? on a run mine is at about 70-80, in traffic it goes upto a max of 90! is this a problem?
Totally normal, but your temperature gauge will be lying to you anyway, so don't trust it Hooking up a laptop and the software will show you your true temperatures, first fan should kick in at 92, second at 95 (IIRC? been a while since I had reason to check))
brakedust300 said:
trooperiziz said:
brakedust300 said:
Making we a little worried reading this, what are "normal" running temperatures? on a run mine is at about 70-80, in traffic it goes upto a max of 90! is this a problem?
Totally normal, but your temperature gauge will be lying to you anyway, so don't trust it Hooking up a laptop and the software will show you your true temperatures, first fan should kick in at 92, second at 95 (IIRC? been a while since I had reason to check))
I would send you a copy but I don't have one with me.
MackemPete said:
Far Eastender said:
Raw egg, they tested this on mythbusters and it did the job! Seriously though, if it does turn out to be a leak, and for the sake of your wallet i hope it is, then get it fixed rather than bodge it with radweld.
Edited by Far Eastender on Tuesday 11th December 08:22
optimax sniffer said:
Check you haven't got a weeping hose or the rad leaking
I think I had both. The expansion tank was cracked and the t piece underneath was weeping. I think there may be a slight crack in the rad, but it's not serious at the moment.Does anybody do an ally rad for the cerb?
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