Help! New leak?

Chaps would be grateful for your help; took my 1983 SIII 88" for a short run this morning and on returning home noticed new puddle of water underneath. Ah must be a burst hose no doubt I thought however after crawling underneath and removing radiator grille found steady dripping from.....a chassis cross member???

Taken a photo which I'll try and upload but the cross member is the front section just behind the dumb irons. The obvious source of the leak is the radiator but that is forward of this location and "downhill" whilst the vehicle is parked on the sloping drive.

Water dripping out is clear with no staining or taint.

If anyone has any ideas I would be very grateful. Thank you very much.

(Not a good week for leaks.....110 daily driver was "impounded" by Peter Vardy in Aberdeen due to leak in main fuel tank when I filled up...too hazardous to drive apparently!)

Reservoir overflow? Screenwash?

Water trapped in chassis? Coolant I'd expect to have anti freeze in it (please say there's antifreeze in it) and look a bit rusty, washer bottle liquid would foam if there's additive in it.

When my radiator cap seal went i only occasionally got a leak for a short period when just up to temperature. Dribbled down and leaked off front x member.

Have you got an overflow bottle on the side of the radiator and is the pipe to this routed correctly?

oxides said:

Water trapped in chassis? Coolant I'd expect to have anti freeze in it (please say there's antifreeze in it) and look a bit rusty, washer bottle liquid would foam if there's additive in it.

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Anti-freeze? You would have thought so....it does look a bit rusty, certainly not washer bottle liquid as that has additive and is blue coloured. Suspect it is from the radiator although how on earth it got there......

Thanks for all your help guys, I suspect that the radiator itself has sprung a leak, I think normally the coolant should be above the top of the radiator fins but the tide is well and truly out....

dominicbeesley said:

Have you got an overflow bottle on the side of the radiator and is the pipe to this routed correctly?

Click to expand...

Yes and it's completely full which is a mystery, will check the pipe routing though, there may be a problem there.

Full overflow bottle, low rad level - leaking rad cap?

or cracked overflow pipe

If its not drawing back water from the expansion bottle I would have thought it would be the cap at fault. It was with mine.

Thanks for all your help guys; took the expansion bottle to bits and found an outlet clogged with 30 years of gunk. Cleaned it out, topped everything up and fingers crossed it seems to have been sorted.