Water seals advise... Again

[RemarkLima]

OK, need a bit of advise here...

...The dreaded buzzer has returned!!! The bane of my life is back!!!

That said, it\'s like before, which I thought may have been water seals but then again the more I see the more I\'m not too sure.

AFAIK, the coolant pipes should go very hard as soon as you start the engine right? That\'s if it\'s failed in the exhaust / combustion area. Also with the filler cap open you should see bubbles straight away? Or does the thermostat need to open first?

If it\'s failed in the inlet area I\'d expect you\'d get water sucked into the engine and loads of white smoke from the exhuast pretty much all the time, especially if lifting off at high revs.

Right??? Or have I got this all clucking fonfused?

Now my car shows none of these symptoms, yet it\'s started to lose a little water again. Probably only 200mm if that each time, but definately something weird. I\'ve replaced both caps a few times now, both seem to hold fine.

The hard pipe between the turbo\'s that can split, how can you spot that? Or the rubber pipes to the turbos for that matter? Or the ones under the plenum? Should I just try and change all of these or do you think I\'m on a wild goose chase?

TIA!
Mark

[nikp]

Dunno - but if it helps, i travelled all the way from Billericay in Essex to Bristol with a broken water seal, only lost water when i turned the engine off. Didn\'t notice any white smoke on the journey. Coolant was chucked out when i switched off, never on the journey.

[ianelvar]

I found all the leaks on mine by hooking up the mityvac and pressurising the system while the engine was cold. Just pump it up to 10psi or so, and you should soon find if there\'s any leaks.
Mine were:

Little pipe underneath the UIM
Little pipe behind UIM near the bulkhead
Poor AST cap. Wasn\'t holding pressure

It\'s far easier to have it up to pressure when the engine is cold and not running. I\'d have never found them if I\'d continued to look that way. Sounds to me like you\'re suffering exactly the same problem I was, and thankfully it\'s not related to coolant seals!
I made a hole in the centre of a spare filler cap and plugged a hose into it that I could connect to the mityvac. It\'s then pretty simple to pump it up to pressure and go poking around for leaks. I found that I could hear them more than see them without the noise of the engine.

The silver rex I\'ve got was a different thing entirely. Once I\'d pressurised the system it would never hold pressure, and after that she never started again because of all the water that had been pushed into the chambers by the pressure. At least it got a definative answer though.

[leon]

im just going to throw my little experiance in here, i had a problem with the weep hole on the waterpump, it would leak water out in small amounts, although i could see the water on the floor but it was a real pain to track it down in the engine bay

[RemarkLima]

OK, thanks guys! I was thinking maybe the water pump gasket but I can\'t see any water on the floor...

ianelvar, I think I\'ll take a drill to a spare cap and give that a go, and as you say, if end up pumping water into the block then at least I\'ll know

I\'m thinking of sticking a couple of cheap filters onto the air inlet pipes just so I can ditch the airbox for a wee while, and get a better look at what\'s happening... Don\'t suppose anyone know\'s the diameter of the 2 main pipes to the turbos?

[leon]

I\'ve got two off the car i can measure them tonight if you want when i get home :Thumbs-up  if its the  waterpump gasket or weep hole chances are it will leak down the wire leading to the OMP wich will drop off on the same side of the car as the expansion tank

[ianelvar]

Cool. If you\'re happy to pay postage and send it back at some point I can send you the one I made if that\'s any help?
Getting the airbox out the way is definately a good plan, it made my life so much easier when I was doing mine.

[RemarkLima]

That\'d be superb Leon!

I think I have a couple of old caps around that should be able to hold the pressure that I can drill so will try that first and stick a tyre valve in there for now If not you\'ll be hearing from me!

[arrouk]

thats a stroke of genius :god

ill remember that idea, i know it will help one day.

matt