300TDi coolant leak

Got a coolant leak on my 300Tdi Defender. Loses one pint of water per 100 miles. It drips down the turbo side of the engine - can't see exactly where from but starts quite high. It lands on the bar just in front of the axel (if that helps).
Any ideas - is my water pumps about to go bang?
Do I 'just' need a new gasket?
Would Radweld be a good idea?
What would you do - truck in daily use.

Got any pics? Have ye taken the plastic(?) cover off and had a good look around to see where it could be comin' from? Got any pics?

Check ALL yer hoses for cracks / splits, make sure yer jubilee clips on yer hoses are all tight, check to see if yer rad is leakin' and the coolant bein' thrown back on the engine, might even be yer water pump gaskets. If it's been leakin' for some time then there might be a clue where there is a lot of scale type stuff

very suree its not the radiator. Have uploaded a few pics - the camera phone can reach parts my head carnt.

xj53c said:

very suree its not the radiator. Have uploaded a few pics - the camera phone can reach parts my head carnt.

Click to expand...

Any chance of a piccy of that area taken a wee bit further back?

i have just had this exact problem,
Take the belt off of the water pump pulley, see if it has any play on it,
chances are its the water pump tell tail saying the pump is on its way out, alternatively it could be that you still have one of the original cardboard gaskets in there, in hich case it could be you only need to replace the p(water pump) gasket with a metal one (about £4).

i replaced the water pump and the p gasket, £40 and 3 hours of my own labour for all...... in my eyes £40 is better than buying a new engine.

hope that helps

Dan