406oc.co.uk

Went out to the tip this morning, it's around 15 miles away. I turned the engine off emptied all the crap out if the back but when I walked around the front I could see a puddle coolant, I opened the bonnet and sure enough coolant everywhere. I moved it out of the way walked off to get some water and let it cool down, then put around 2lt back in and drove home carefully. The temperature gauge never went past 90 and I had warm air coming out of the heater. When I got home I took the expansion tank cap off, there was no pressure and it hadn't lost any more coolant. I went through the bleeding process again and left it running for around an hour then took it for a good run then left it to cool and it hasn't done it again and the coolant level is where I left it. When I removed the cap I noticed the seal inside was broken and the white bit was rather loose, I replaced the seal with one I had out of a mixed box of seals. Also I noticed once I got home and had bled it through and left it running for a while that the bottom of the radiator was still cold but the top was warm. The top radiator hose was warm and so was the bottom hose but only the top half below the split where it connects to the radiator was cold too.

Unless the engine is generating a lot of heat i.e. working hard, the bottom of the radiator will be cold as the thermostat will be at least partially shut as the area of the radiator that is hot is sufficient to dispel the heat.

As regards your water loss the worst fear is a leaky head gasket, if this is the case water will be blown out of the overflow and filler cap when you have got your foot down hard at high revs so the engine is stressed. It could be the filler cap seal so I would change it anyway. After you have done that run the overflow pipe into a receptacle and see if its expelling coolant.

Peter

Thanks l, replaced the seal on the cap and have had no further spillages, the engine temp never went oast 90 and there wasn't any pressurisation.