Td5 - where's me water going?

So my 133000 mile Td5 is starting to use a little coolant. Header tank needing topped up every fortnight or so.
I'm happy to give it what ever it needs parts wise but can't find any obvious leak from radiator or any pipes. It's had a new cap and the coolant was all drained and refilled with proper mix of OAT coolant last year. No signs of head gasket failure, no mix of oil / water apparent thankfully. CArpets all dry and heater working as expected.
Not normally a problem but towing the caravan to south of France next month and dont want to be left standing by a French autoroute in clouds of steam.
Suggestions? Pressure test first?

2 thoughts.

1) even if no other signs of head gasket failure are evident, a sniff test will tell you for sure.

2) check all hoses, unions and clamps. I disturbed the top hose on mine and now it weeps very very slightly at the radiator. When I have 10 minutes (and nothing else to fix) I'll pop the old hose clip off, clean the radiator stub and whack a jubilee clip on.

Balbas said:

2 thoughts.

1) even if no other signs of head gasket failure are evident, a sniff test will tell you for sure.

2) check all hoses, unions and clamps. I disturbed the top hose on mine and now it weeps very very slightly at the radiator. When I have 10 minutes (and nothing else to fix) I'll pop the old hose clip off, clean the radiator stub and whack a jubilee clip on.

Click to expand...

What am I sniffing?
No weeps evident anywhere, well not coolant, plenty of oil leaks!

You could check to make sure the rad isn't leaking - if you remove the fan cover and look at the back of the rad (might need to remove the fan to get a really good look) you may be able to see if there's any sign of a leak - it did on mine!

Possible water pump leak if you've not had a new one. Not always easy to see as water drips onto the s..t plate underneath and not onto the road. Look down the side of the top hose with a torch.

Fuel cooler leaking?

Mmm...

Hate reading posts like the one I'm about to make... Hopefully its something silly but...

I had this, difference was, I knew there was a leak because initially I could see where it was. I did a fair bit of dithering; new rad, thermostat and pipes... Turns out I had/have back pressure in the coolant system - coolant is coming out (in my case initially from the thermostat connections) in a fine mist at high pressure. The viscous fan was then wafting it all over the engine compartment making it impossible to detect.

Only reason I know its doing that is because I put steal seal in and I now have white stuff all over my engine bay - so to speak. You can see the patterns the fan makes as its spinning.

You could do that black light die test thingy. Its an additive that shows up under UV light, should highlight any leaks more easily.

Hopefully its not your head though.

Had the fan and shroud off, dry as a bone, no staining around any of the pipe connections including thermostat.

Will check around the water pump with a torch and mirror.

It really is a small amount of loss at the minute but don't want it to get worse.

eventually get one of these UV Dye & UV Torch Kit Leak Detection Dye For Cooling Antifreeze System RLD2 Ring | eBay to rule out an evaporating leak... if no signs with it either i'm affraid there's a crack in one of the inlet ports, that was with mine when i've had such undetectable leak

Only other thing is, there is a safety valve thingy in the cap, it might be faulty - allowing water to escape as vapour?

Maybe?

How much are you having to top it up when you do?

K seal fixed mine.

pabroon74 said:

Only other thing is, there is a safety valve thingy in the cap, it might be faulty - allowing water to escape as vapour?

Maybe?

How much are you having to top it up when you do?

Click to expand...

Got a new cap. Its not much but it's going somewhere, couple of hundred ml per week.

I did consider kseal but you hear horror stories about it!

Mmm...

Its not much at all, certainly not a significant problem - which in terms of the Land Rover Discovery is a relative concept.

As I said, I put k-seal in mine, it sort of helped but the process they recommend is not really suited to the TD5 engine if you've got back pressure. There is a raft of other instruction you need to consult on their website - all up about disconnecting injectors one at a time then checking for bubbles... With injectors being sealed and the rubber gasket being such a bastard to seat properly when you're refitting the rocker cover...

Doesn't sound like you need it anyway.

Have the same problem!!! Right now!! Gary wood of alive tuning found the problem when doing my car, there is copper filaments in coolant cap which can be a sign of leaky head gasket. Got new cap! Uv dye on way, then ultimately it is the head gasket!!

I had the same problem with mine and it was by luck I found it.
We were at the time trying to stop the belt from squealing after changing the belt twice,
tensioner and crank pulley that was worn out anyway.

The squeal was still there after all the parts had been replaced. Anyway with all the covers off and the engine ticking over everything was as it should be but if you gave it a few revs and put it under load it would come back.

While I was looking under the bonnet again with it ticking over there wasn't squeal went so I got a mate to press the accelerator and give it a few revs and while I was looking from the drivers side wing across the line of the belt I saw a fine mist come from the direction of the top of the engine.

The coolant was escaping from a cast housing that is situated at the top of the engine at the front on the right hand side. It has a 1/2" rubber hose going into it. We found that the actual cast housing was letting coolant escape but only when the engine was under load.

I'm sorry I don't know what the housing is called but that is where my leek was found