COOLANT leak with no hole..

So today i was running late for work and the defender got thumped the whole way to work, at the end of the day i noticed a small puddle of coolant under the engine. popped the bonnet and there was coolant sitting on the right of the engine and about 300ml missing out the bottle.
Here's the conundrum, there is no trace of where its come from, i've put a pressure tester on the expansion bottle and taken it up to 13 bar with no leaks and ive topped her up and driven home with no recurrence.

This is where the coolant was sitting.
[IMG:1024:576]http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa80/tamtuck3r/Offender%2090/Mods/DSC_0512_zps690e00e8.jpg[/img]

[IMG::]http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa80/tamtuck3r/Offender%2090/Mods/DSC_0513_zpsc1525eb5.jpg[/img]

13 bar ?you must have good hose clips

Ttuck3r said:

So today i was running late for work and the defender got thumped the whole way to work, at the end of the day i noticed a small puddle of coolant under the engine. popped the bonnet and there was coolant sitting on the right of the engine and about 300ml missing out the bottle.
Here's the conundrum, there is no trace of where its come from, i've put a pressure tester on the expansion bottle and taken it up to 13 bar with no leaks and ive topped her up and driven home with no recurrence.

This is where the coolant was sitting.
[IMG:1024:576]http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa80/tamtuck3r/Offender%2090/Mods/DSC_0512_zps690e00e8.jpg[/img]

[IMG::]http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa80/tamtuck3r/Offender%2090/Mods/DSC_0513_zpsc1525eb5.jpg[/img]

Click to expand...

13 bar? are you sure?

Check your bleed screw. That's where you'll generally get coolant land if you've cracked off the bleed screw.

jamesmartin said:

13 bar ?you must have good hose clips

Click to expand...

and hydraulic hoses instead of rubber. I make that near enough 190 psi

:doh: it just had numbers on it and not thinking i presumed BAR, i was told only to go to 11 anyway.

Thanks for the info i will go have another scout in that area again.

its worth going to 18 psi ,if you had 13 psi it wouldnt be quite enough

jamesmartin said:

its worth going to 18 psi ,if you had 13 psi it wouldnt be quite enough

Click to expand...

Int it 20psi for the expansion cap pressure release?

not sure on a td5

jamesmartin said:

not sure on a td5

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's 20pi (1.4 bar)

in which case 24 psi

If the coolant is over pressurising (head gasket) the top hose is prone to getting a pin hole in the rear near the join with the smaller hose that goes to the solid pipe on top of the rocker cover. This won't show up until fully pressurised.

Hmm. Sometimes my TD5 leaves little stains of dried coolant about the place. I did wonder about it at first but over 13,000 miles it only needed about 250 ml of top up so maybe it's just a harmless quirk as yet. Is it smoking more than usual? That might imply water getting in the cylinders. Any signs of oil in the water or water in the oil? Any sign of changes in fluid levels? You might have to wait a bit for the symptoms to develop somewhat before you can be sure.

These engines should be able to take a fair amount of hard work. After all, with a remap and various performance accessories some people claim to be able to get over 200 bhp out of them, so in standard tune they shouldn't be getting too stressed. Or at least not more than they're able to take.

Well I have just gone through all the clamps an clips found one or two slightly loose and went or a long drive and all looks well so far :thumbup: