Coolant Leak.

[Kevin]

I took my car out for the first time since being registered the other day to find a pool of coolant on the floor.  The car had been sat for a couple of days.  Now I cleaned it off and parked the car up last night and checked this morning and there is another pool.  It\'s not a tremendous amount maybe half a cup full.

I\'ve checked the coolant levels and there still ok, can still see the level in the filler neck.

The leak appears to be towards the back of the engine, as its dripping off the cross member so I cant really see where its coming from?

Any idea\'s?

[rico2k_uk]

check all the hoses.. the clips can come loose when the get older. might be worth replacing the clips.

[RemarkLima]

What cross memeber do you mean?

Back of the engine will be heater hoses (passenger side) or maybe turbo hoses (drivers side), but that would probably evaporate before it hits the ground.

Best bet, get a garage to pressurise the system up to ~14psi and then have a look round for leaks. Also as it\'s been dry, if you can get it up in the air then you may be able to spot some stains where it\'s leaking from.

[Draco]

it could be the coolent hose that goes in the back of you plenum (upper inlet manifold) its the hose to the rear of that. Check it has no cracks and does not have a lose fitting

[Red and Single]

If you haven\'t lost any fluid then it\'s probably not coolant ??

Could it be the air conditioning drain ?

[Kevin]

I think i\'ll have to jack it up tonight and have a proper look.  It\'s definately green coolant though.

[Tiger_kpt]

To be honest... sounds like you or someone else overfilled the coolant? The expansion tank is designed to leak coolant out of a port on it when there is too much coolant in the system. Especially after the engine and coolant has been heated up after a drive.

Also check that your engine has the standard coolant caps on the AST and the engine thermostat housing. Uprated ones, increase the pressure in the coolant system so that the only way to release the pressure is to force a leak elsewhere in the system, normally either the expansion tank route or a weakened hose... ejecting coolant at the same time. Whereas normally the correct rated caps allow the release of it all via themselves. Worst case scenario is that uprated caps can blow out your standard water seals (dependant upon how uprated the caps are). Suprising how much damage a £20 uprated "performance" pressure cap can do! Always ditch for new OE parts.

[Kevin]

Thanks for all the information.  I found the leak, it was the small coolant hose to the upper intake manifold.  The clip had gone loose so I replaced it with a jubilee clip and it\'s all fine now.