Spraying coolant, what to do?

Just had a little jaunt out in the disco.
On the way back coolant started spraying out of the front of the radiator, it was spraying about 2 foot in front of the car and the tempearture went right up.
I stopped the car let it cool and waited till it had finished spraying coolant. Then I drove very gently home, about 5 miles. The temperature stayed the at it's normal point about half way all the way back.

Whats best to do now, should I use some radiator sealent stuff? it's a 94 300tdi and I've heard that sealent isn't always a good idea on older cars.
Should I just top it up with coolant and see how it goes? can I do that using a 50/50 mix.
OR should i prepare to get a new radiator?

Please help!
Thanks
Teshu

get some aradite and splatther it all over the hole.. this seals it and unlike them rad sealers you put in the cooling system, it dint bloke up the passage ways inside. if yer rad has got to the stage where its crumbling then gert a new one. araldite is capable of sealing a hole about 3" by 1" as i once found out

Thanks for the reply slob.

Just been out having a look at my radiator, it's a little crumbly but there's no sign of leakage from the hoses. So I think I'll get some araldite and try that first. It appeared to be quite a small hole so hopefully it'll hold for a month or so till the other car sells and frees up pennies.

Had a look in the haynes maual and it dosen't appear too difficult to change the radiator so think I'll get reading and plan to do it myself.
Is about £120 for a new radiator right?

Can I just top up my coolant with 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water?

Cheers

When your at it might as well drain the system, pour in a gallon of antifreeze and top it up till its full. I would drain the rad and let it dry off before attacking it with araldite anyway...

good point,, when i did it it was in the middle of the oz desert so it wur empty and dry by the time i took it out.. and it lasted for another 5 months and wur still fine when it wur sold on

hi
Dont trust the temp gauge its a sealed system and the temp switch is on the thermostat for a temp measure use a rad sealant and bleed the system or better try take the tank off get it welded pressure tested its cheaper than a new tank if you do it your self be sure to bleed the system use the top small rad hose not the bleed screw you get a better effect if you dont bleed it the temp gauge will will give a false reading
hardest removal on doing that is the fan and coupling spanner and hammer sharp knock

if its off clean the intercooler as they come together nothing to do with the over heating but improves perfomance a little
good luck Jummy

Has anybod fitted one of these?

Home

Well been out twice now, the radiator seams to have a leak about half way up.
The coolant tank empties out gradualy when left standing till it's just near the bottom of the filler tank. For no apparant reason (other than a hole) it sometimes starts shooting the coolant out the front of the radiator.

I susect I'll have to get a new raditator at some stage soon but hopefully I'll be able to araldite the hole till the new one arrives and untill some spare time comes my way.
When I order the new radiator should I get new top and bottom hoses?
Hopefully it won't be too big a job to do, will I need to take the fan off then? Haynes manual didn't seam to mention it but just ahd a quick scan.

Thanks for the replies

squeeze the leaking tube flat with a pair of needlenose pliers and use radweld or cheaper still an egg, drilled a hole in my rad fitting a fan ( prat...rushing) did this and its been spot on for months, towed the caravan 700 mile no issues and not lost a drop since

Cheers Steve

Well folks,
I followed advice (thank you all )and last weekend managed to fix the hole in the radiator, flush it out and refill the radiator/coolant system. I used araldite on the hole and it's been fine.

Untill now..........

Spent a good hour or so in traffic this evening, didn't move much and I guess the disco got hot. So coolant starts spraying out just above the patch I araldited.
So I let the car cool some and gingerly drive home thankfully only had a few minutes left to spend in standing traffic and then a ten minute drive to home, the temp appeared to stay at normal level - suspect this was a lie from my thermostat.

Get home let her cool down and araldite the hole and pour some water in to check it's not leaking. WELL it's now leaking from near the back of the engine, it's running down a braided hose that I think runs round the back of the engine.

The previous owner said he'd replaced the water jacket gasket - could it be this again?

Any help or advice on what to look for would be greatly appricated. It's gone dark and I can't see too much but will happily nip oyut and poke around with a torch in my mouth if I can pinpoint the problem now.

Please help thank you

Teshu

I've had a good look today and the water is dripping down onto the top of the gear box bell housing. It's a fair bit of water if I fill up the coolant system.

Could it be that the leak is from somwhere behind the front interior panel and from the heating system and or the heater matrix? It seams to be the right place for a leak to be dripping down onto the gear box.

I've started taking out the interior trim to get to the heating system as I'm all out of ideas as to where else it could be coming from but don't want to waste a few hours doing it unless I have to.

Any thoughts
cheers

yer leak could be from any where that has water in it. are you sure its coolant and not A/C drain blocked or a leaky sunroof

Thanks slob but my disco dosen't have air conditioning just the basic heating system. The sunroof dosen't leak (so far).
And when I squeeze the bottom hose that goes to the radiator it causes the water to come out of the leak faster (wherever it is), a squeeze definetly increases the rate of the leak. My radiator has water in as does the expansion tank, the thermostat housing though gradually empties when I try to fill it up. Presumably that empties as it's the highest point of the system and the radiator stays full as the water isn't flowing back out if it to the leak.
Do you reckon I should continue removing the dashboard etc to get to the heater and the matrix? Is there anywhere else I could or should look first?

Cheers

I have same coolant leak onto top of bell housing,regular coolant level checks and dont worry about it as it's only a few drops.I know it's coolant cos it is!

core plug?

can you get someone to squeeze it or better still get it pressurized then look fer the leak

The Mad Hat Man said:

core plug?

Click to expand...

Core plugs usualy start as a dribble and get realy bad very quickly.Had a good sneck around when I recently had gearbox off but you still could'nt see fa behind the head as it's that close up to the bulk head.

Personaly thought that it might have been an external head gasket leak,but it's only a few drops and it's not getting any worse so sod it!

I could get the OH to squeeze the pipe and I'll have a look but I think it's in some place out of sight. Still will give it a go. Probably get a smack when I ask her to squeeze my pipe though!
By pressurised do you mean start up the car and let her heat up a bit so the coolant starts to expand?

no yer get a pumpy thing that fits on yer filler cap. you can then pressurize the system without getting boiled.. even if you can't find it you might atleast discover if its inside the car or in the injun compartment

Aaaah that sonds good, shall nip to the local car shoppie tommorow and see if they've got a presure thingy then.

I think I'm loosing to mch coolant for it to be left and jst do regular checks on the level.

What and we're are the core plgs? still a bit lacking in knowledge abot these things.