How lucky/happy am I?

[Tyre Smoke]

Last Sunday, out for a lovely afternoon drive and caught in traffic. Sure enough the temp starts to rise. And rise. And rise. Off the guage. Fans going nineteen to the dozen but nothing but airflow over the engine works.

Eventually get stopped and lift the bonnet. Now, for various reasons my Cerb has always used water/coolant. I've never discovered where it was going, but about a quart every 1000 miles was going. No discernable leaks so it had to be the head gasket. I never wanted to admit it, because she always ran beautifully. No hint of gasket failure - well none of the usual signs.

Anyway, there's a hissing coming from under the driver's side airbox. I'm convinced there has been some catastrophic head gasket failure. Bought five litres of water from a little shop and once fully cooled she drank most of it.

Tonight I got out the spanners to investigate. Only to discover that the rubber pipe attached to the steel water pipe under the airbox is leaking at the jubilee clip. But only when up to temp. It drips onto the manifold and evaporates leaving no sign of the leak.

How pleased am I that a bit of rubber pipe has been causing me heartache for the last two years? Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?

One last thing chaps, what's the coolant capacity? I'll have to drain it and top up with the appropriate antifreeze since I guess it's 90% H2O in there at the moment.

[Malam]

That happened to me in traffic, in the centre of town. The pipe had split just under the jubilee clip and was leaking onto the manifold. Heart attack moment that was, I'd only have the car a few days

[GT4 Baz]

That may be where mine is leaking from after fitting some new hoses (had a jubilee clip fail).

Its 12l of coolant btw, hope that helps

[HarryW]

I can't remember the exact coolant volume but it is around 9 ltrs, quiet a lot, but then again there's a lot of heat.

[morebeanz]

I've just done this exact replacement - coolant volume is 15L from empty.

When you replace the hose, think about replacing the Y piece too. Racing Green do a brass one that i have found to be much more robust.

Also, buy a ratchet screwdriver with a 7mm hex drive to do the jubilee clips up - much easier than a slot screwdriver or mini spanner...

[Storer]

Add water wetter to the coolant too. It seems to help stabilise the temperature.

[ro_butler]

another variation on this theme that I had recently was an expansion tank cap that was allowing slight coolant loss. I had no clue what it was (the cap looked pretty old though) apart from a slight 'hissing' from the nearside once the engine was switched off. If you are suffering coolant loss this is a quick and cheap thing to rule out.

[Allandwf]

Mine too, the internal bore off the hoses at the y piece had also collapsed, replace hoses, clips, was much better.