Water Leaking is it my fault?

[Wolverine69]

Hello all.
Recently got my 3rd gen back on the road thanks to the guys at WGT. Have recently topped up my cooling system after a couple of good weekend blasts and think i may have overfilled the system because around the expansion tank water has been leaking onto the floor i was wondering if anyone knows if this is normal if you overfill them ( i.e is there an overflow pipe that the water can escape from) i have left it a couple of days and checked the level with expansion tank dipstick and that reads well full. Just wondered if anyone has had an experience of this before i strip my engine top find where its coming from.
Cheers:wiggle

[m1tch]

What sorts of temps are you getting? Hopefully its just overfilled and its getting rid of some coolent, if its not then its the engine pressurising the coolent system meaning its water seals.

Although saying that, someone else had an issue with the same sort of thing and found out that the wrong cap had been used on the overflow

[Wolverine69]

Getting normal water temp running but it started leaking when i was filling with the engine off have had a recent compression test at WGT and its all spot on.

[m1tch]

What aftermarket gauge have you got? the OEM one is pretty rubbish, if it even moves above where it usually is it means the engine probably overheated about an hour ago lol

[Wolverine69]

have got saga gauges but also check from my apexi unit what the water temp is and that seems fine, when i filled it as well i hadnt been out in it for at least two days

[Wolverine69]

Also the water is coming from waht seems to be directly below the expansion tank on the passenger side front

[L18M]

from what i remember, the expansion tank should only be filled 1/2 way.
so fill up the cooling system (engine) and then there should be a level on the expansion tank thats about 1/2 way up thats marked max.

[TiddlesRX7]

from what i remember, the expansion tank should only be filled 1/2 way.
so fill up the cooling system (engine) and then there should be a level on the expansion tank thats about 1/2 way up thats marked max.

Yeah its half way on the FC\'s. If you fill it then when the engine pushes coolant into it then it flows out the top. Just take it out on a couple of quiet runs and keep an eye on it.

[marcusd666]

Mine sits about 1/2 way on the dip stick never seen it any higher. Sure I read on here some where that it dumps water out the expansion tank when its over filled but don\'t quote me on it ?

[Aubec]

Are you filling up at the filler neck in the middle of the engine bay?

A possibility is that you have a pin hole leak in the line from AST to expansion tank.  Under pressure the coolant flows to the expansion tank, but when to coolant cools down it pulls back air through the pin-hole rather than coolant from the expansion tank.  The expansion tank therefore gets more and more full, but you have to keep topping up at the filler neck.

[clive]

If have the origonal AST tank chances are that the water is coming out from the seam that you will see joins the top of the tank to the bottom, common failure point on FD\'S

Hope this helps,

[Wolverine69]

Hi thanks for the advice . i am filling from the one in the middle i generally keep the one to passenger side off as well and when that overflows from filling the middle then i know its about full. When i replaced the cap on the one to the right and put a bit more in the one in the middle that is when it started to leak from what looks like the expansion one underneath somewhere any more suggestions would be helpful but think i will strip that part to see where it is actually coming from for peace of mind.
Cheers:wave

[TRIND-FD]

Hi thanks for the advice . i am filling from the one in the middle i generally keep the one to passenger side off as well and when that overflows from filling the middle then i know its about full. When i replaced the cap on the one to the right and put a bit more in the one in the middle that is when it started to leak from what looks like the expansion one underneath somewhere any more suggestions would be helpful but think i will strip that part to see where it is actually coming from for peace of mind.
Cheers:wave

Sounds like you need new caps. Have you got the caps on the right filler necks. The ast should only fill the over flow under pressure.
 
Keith.

[JohnP]

check the pipe from ast > expansion bottle.. mine was connected using double end nipples, and the nipple cracked, quite had to spot, and only leaked when the engine was hot/under pressure.