Coolant leak

[raceboy]

Just got home from the Sunday afternoon hoon and on popping the money pit back in the garage I noticed a trail of wayer spots on the drive by this time the engine was off and the car in the garage, looked underneath and no drips started it up and water is pissing out under the car, so switch it off again and it stops
So whats broke and how expensive is it going to be this time?

[V8 Animal]

Water pump cracked or leaking could be a hose.
Thats what i would look for straight away.
Animal

[derbygreg]

if it was a hard drive and the engine was good and warm then you might hav had a little escaping from the expansion tank...mine dies it when its real hot to release some pressure.

[raceboy]

derbygreg said:

if it was a hard drive and the engine was good and warm then you might hav had a little escaping from the expansion tank.

Thats the first thing I looked at, nothing coming out the top, it's all dripping out underneath somewhere, couldn't really see where as it was getting dark and theres not a great deal of room in the garage to be getting underneath
Looks like I'll be having a word with with my spanner monkey tomorrow then, get it up on his ramps and have a look
8 days to go to a trackday this is all I need

[that daddy]

get a pressure test done saves a lot of time, check hoses and fittings first though,maybe something trivial.

[shpub]

Alternatively if you have a later car with a sepearte expansion tank...
https://delta.securesslhost.net/~shenglt/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=32&products_id=40&osCsid=047e73889b77d5cedf43333395cd93f1

[raceboy]

shpub said:

Alternatively if you have a later car with a sepearte expansion tank...

Pre-Serp I'm afraid, 94 4.0.
Consensus in the office seems to be 'water pump' due to the leak when running/no leak when off symptom, but I should be able to get it on the ramps tonight and have a look, if it is this how hard is it to do and how much/how hard are water pumps to find

[that daddy]

cant see you having trouble getting one if it is the pump,good land rover specialist springs to mind.famous four products ltd,try a google search.

[shpub]

The only thing to be careful is that there are several varients so make sure that the replacement is the same as the one you have. Some water pumps have longer noses and don't fit.

[raceboy]

shpub said:

The only thing to be careful is that there are several varients so make sure that the replacement is the same as the one you have.

Well thats the current problem, can't find any pump that matches the old one, only option at the moment is a bloke that re-cons the old one, but his lead times are too long for Mondays trackday

[GreenV8S]

raceboy said:

Well thats the current problem, can't find any pump that matches the old one

Where have you looked? Most decent TVR specialists and dealers will stock them, or you can get them from Rover specialists like RPI. There are a couple of variations but the type used on pre-serp TVRs are readily available (or they were last time I bought one, from RPI).

[raceboy]

GreenV8S said:

Where have you looked?

Just left the job to my spanner man, the one he had yesterday looked like the ones I could find on the website someone quoted earlier, but it didn't look a great deal like the one on my car

GreenV8S said:

Most decent TVR specialists and dealers will stock them, or you can get them from Rover specialists like RPI. There are a couple of variations but the type used on pre-serp TVRs are readily available (or they were last time I bought one, from RPI).

Might have to point him in the direction of somewhere a little more specialised if he's not found one yet

[raceboy]

Thanks for the tip off for RPI, never actually heard of them before and although my man hasn't actually ordered it from them, they did divulge the all important information as to what the donor car for the water pump is, we were barking up the wrong tree looking for 'Land Rover' products, turns out it's Rover 3.5 SDi Vitesse
Hopefully the correct part will be on the van today and with a bit of luck the trackday plans are back on

[big_jimmyb]

Could also be a split hose, i noticed this on mine, it wasnt leaking till the pressure built up in the cooling system then the hose would expand opening the split.... was more of a dripping than a spraying cause it was hitting the inner wing first then running down....

hopw u get it sorted.

[M@H]

It could well be the gasket between the water pump housing and the engine block, rather than actually a problem with the pump itself (I had this gasket go on mine, no need to replace the pump at all)

[Don]

We've only recently had to have our car spend several days with David Batty getting sorted out with gaskets going and hoses and clips replacing.

All fixed now thank goodness...

The cars are getting to the age where these things let go...

[raceboy]

Well it was close
The right pump finally arrived on Friday, my man managed to get it fitted and all was looking good.
The pump was definatly at fault, the leak was from the 'fail hole' in the pump body.
Took it for a short shake down run today, and all looked well until I get home and see the pool under the car it appears to be leaking from the main hose joint, tried tightening the jubile clip a bit but that doesn't seem to make any difference
Part of me wants to risk the trackday, take a big bottle of coolant with me and keep an eye on the temp gauge, but the sensible side of me says take the Golf
Might pop to the garage first thing Monday morning and see if theres anything silly he can see, or I might actually pray for rain then it's definatly Golf hooning time.
Arr well not to worry, time to go to the pub and forget about it.......

[that daddy]

try moving the hose clip nearer the ridge on the casting of the pump,you can feel this under the hose,you may find the hose as formed to the shape of the old neck inc corrosion as well.tighten hose clip & see,dont go tracking with coolant loss,you will kick yourself if you kill the motor.

[mongoose]

I don't know what your using to tighten the clip,but i always use a socket now,rather than a screwdriver.It allows you to get the clip that little bit tighter-obviously you dont want to overtighten though.

[GreenV8S]

The housing should have a lug on it to stop the hose going on too far; maybe you tightened the hose clamp onto that by mistake? Take the hose off again and have a carefull look at the state of the housing and the hose to make sure they're both clean and undamaged. I'd also suggest using a new hose clamp unless the existing ones are as new.