Water leak. please help me find it

[Welly]

I wonder if it is this poblem that James had...viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3814&start=0&st=0&s ... off+almost

James said: there was no usuall symptoms, i.e. excess exhaust steam, water in oil and vice-versa,

[steve_earwig]

That's it, scare the crap out the poor guy Wasn't James' mystery Pug obviously misfiring tho?

[Welly]

I don't want to scare him but it might be that the pressure releasng from the cap is the beginnings of the gasket problem? I hope it's not and maybe a new cap will sort it?

Where is James again anyway?

[steve_earwig]

I hope it's not and maybe a new cap will sort it?

Ditto! It's worth a try, rather than take the head off, change the gasket and then find it's the cap...

Where is James again anyway?

Off invading Poland?

[biglamb]

Thanks for the pics steve they are really helpfull. and to everyone for the advice. I have now bought a new cap from my local pug stealers and it was a massive £2.58 i think. i have topped up again and fitted the new cap. so fingers crossed. Ill be doing the full system flush next week even if the cap fixes the problem. i think there is very litte anti freeze in there. I have run the car stood still for 30 mins or so with some cardboard under to catch any tell tale drips to locate a leak. and nothing at all. Then it started raining. so, its not leaking into the engine, i cant find any external leaks, and i rapped some cloth aroung the filler cap today to see how wet it was. it was wet from the cap. but in my opinion, not wet enough to warrent the 400-500mm loss per 50 mile drive. So again fingers crossed for the new cap.

[mjb]

When my tubby's radiator started to do an impression of swiss cheese, there were no tell-tale signs in the early stages. This was because the holes were small enough that they only let heavily pressurised water out- ie when the car's in motion - which immediately evaporated into steam. Eventually there grew some pink marks on the radiator which gave the game away, as did the cloud that would sometimes appear in front of the car when stopping (always thought that was exhaust smoke from the car in front until i stopped first in line at some traffic lights!)

If your oil looks fine, I'd suggest using a very high concentration of strongly coloured antifreeze (Halfords stuff is luminous pinky-orange!) to see if anything changes colour under the bonnet...

[jameslxdt]

Where is James again anyway?

Off invading Poland?

i wish, im stuck doing massive amounts of overtime, clocked up 13 hours this week

[teamster1975]

i wish, im stuck doing massive amounts of overtime, clocked up 13 hours this week

Ouch! I hope they're paying you well!

[steve_earwig]

Indeed, just think of all that lovely money! Any joy with the Kübelwagen?

[biglamb]

Doh!!!!
i changed the cap and there is no difference. So next is the system flush. I have bought some bright orange antifreeze from halfrauds, and im gonna tackle this in a moment. Hopefull i will be able to see the orange leak out somewhere. just need to know from some one who has a users manual, what the concentration of the antifreeze should be, and how much water the system should hold, so i know how to mix etc. I am already appriciating your genoroug answers, so again thanks in advance for this one.

[steve_earwig]

Oh crap, if it's still pushing antifreeze out of the cap there's only one thing it can be. Second opinion someone?

[mjb]

what the concentration of the antifreeze should be

I just chuck a large bottle of halfrauds antifreeze in after draining the last lot out, then top up with water. It's impossible to know how much you'll end up putting in as after draining the radiator you'll still have a large amount sitting in the system, like in the heater matrix.

Remember if you're changing brands you'll want to do your first fill with just water so you get most of the old stuff out (like the stuff left in the heater matrix) before draining and re-filling with coolant.

[puggy]

capacity is 8.8 litres with a 50% mix of anti freeze.... before doing it
why not pop along to your garage and ask them to test it for head gasket
leak only takes a few mins and better safe than sorry and once eliminated
can carry on and flush the system

[Welly]

Good idea Puggy

[puggy]

oh and forgot if you do end up flushing the system change
the thermostat cheap precaution