Leaking Coolant

[Ekapol]

Recently I notice green coolant dripping from somewhere under the engine bay making a mess on the floor around front bumper area. Try searching around with a flash light and still couldn't find where exactly it's coming from.

Hoses? Radiator? A gallon of coolant lasts around 2 weeks. For now I keep monitoring the temp gauge.
It's seem ok when the car is running. Air helps to cool it down to 1/4 + mark.

How did you deal with yours? Any tips of what I should look for.

Thank you

ps. I have some oil in the coolant too

[Doc Fizzix]

What side of the radiator? Left or right?

I had a leak from the top plug on my old radiator that would slowly drip down and it was very hard to find until I just replaced the plug. The top plug is on the left side when looking from the drivers seat or on the right as seen from looking at the engine bay with the hood up. The leak was hard to find because I never knew there was another plug at the top of the radiator.

[lotuska]

Sounds like the radiator is starting to fail.

What happens is the plasitc ends of the rad are crimped in place by aluminium of the main part of the rad. These eventually rot away causing the rad to leak.

Only fix is to either replace or get it re-cored.

[L.G.]

I recently had a leak and it mainly turned out to be the radiator, but I didn't have oil in the coolant. Could that be a head gasket issue or not?
If you can get the car lifted up in a mechanics shop or something it will be easier to see where it's leaking (you could try to bent down and look but Elan is too close to tarmac to do that i think...)
Hope you crack it soon...

[Doc Fizzix]

I recently had a leak and it mainly turned out to be the radiator, but I didn't have oil in the coolant. Could that be a head gasket issue or not?
If you can get the car lifted up in a mechanics shop or something it will be easier to see where it's leaking (you could try to bent down and look but Elan is too close to tarmac to do that i think...)
Hope you crack it soon...

Well if it is the radiator I have one and was about to put it on eBay

[Doug]

they likely make some of that fluorescent dye you can put into the coolant, then go drive the car a bit to get it to start the leak, then put the front up on ramps as the sun is getting low on the horizon and use a black light to look for the source of the leak with the fluorescent dye.

this should tell you if it is a hose or the radiator

then procede accordingly

[Ekapol]

Thanks Gents.

I topped it up again last night before taking off from work. Back home, out for dinner and rechecked it again at home. It seems dry this time.

The other day it was pouring

At the restaurant the lock for the glovebox came off with the glovebox in lock position. Of course all my stuff was in there
Took it off in pieces, got it fixed real good last night ... but that's another story.

[paulwatkins]

I had a leak on the electric coolant pump - where the blastic part mates with the metal motor body. It turned out that one of the fixing screws had corroded and so was not sealing at that point. It had been okay with the original hoses, but the problem became evident when i replaced them with the samco ones.

I was able to make a repair by replacing the screw fixin gs for a nut and bolt arrangement


Thought it was worth a mention

[L.G.]

Well if it is the radiator I have one and was about to put it on eBay

Thanks mate but I've ordered one already.

[Ekapol]

OK I found it.

The air filter was rubbing the big hoses underneath. Strange that the area around there seems soft and sticky like some chemicals was eating & rubbing the hose for a while and make this tiny hole.

Could it be oil from K&N filter? Filter always look like the way it supposes to be not too oily.
But the dust accumulates at the bottom of the filter that draw the oil to the hose surface could do it

At the autostore, I bought a roll of radiator hose tape (rubber stretchable and stick to itself) and wrapped over the hole for few times. It still leaks under high pressure -- thermostat opened... I probably can fix it if I take the hose out and neatly wrap the tape. There is no room to work the tape there ... whatever works at the moment.

So now I try to really cool down the engine before parking her -- to prevent another pump kicking in after engine shut-off.

Samco hoses will be shipped in few weeks. Then I might need something to hang/hold the air filter in place so it won't be rubbing again.

At the same time, cleaned and oiled K&N filter, patched some holes that I can see through from the inside from dented mesh-net.

Intake sound is noticeable louder after cleaning. She's more willing to rev too.

[Ekapol]

OK My tapes sucks. Algirdas tapes rules

He sent me a roll after seeing me frustrated re-wrapping my tapes few times. The tapes I used was cut through by the K & N filter again and again, even with the thickness I wrapped. Doesn't really stick to itself, doesn't really seal the water.


I even took the hose out for a nice job wrapping it.

Still I had to refill coolant tank almost every morning for quite some time.

Another day I found K&N filter cut through the BOV hose Now I use another tiny silicone hose to hang the air filter pipe to prevent everything from touching each other.





Tried X-Treme tape and it really does the job.


X-Treme Tape


Thinner, not rubbery but boy.. this is some good stuff. Stretch and seal as advertised. Very strong tape!!

Highly recommended.

[GeoffSmith]

Highly recommended.

That's good to know. I've got a roll lying around somewhere.

[algirdas]

Dear Geoff and Ekapol:

I'll bring some rolls over for my "homeys" in "Bollecks" (whatever that is) when I come over.

Ekapol-Glad you got the tape. When I did not hear from you I was afraid it got lost in the mail. Plus, I'll ping James and see what is going on with the hose sets. Sounds like you can't wait.

Sincerely,

Algirdas

[Specky]

Recently I notice green coolant dripping from somewhere under the engine bay making a mess on the floor around front bumper area. Try searching around with a flash light and still couldn't find where exactly it's coming from.

Hoses? Radiator? A gallon of coolant lasts around 2 weeks. For now I keep monitoring the temp gauge.
It's seem ok when the car is running. Air helps to cool it down to 1/4 + mark.

How did you deal with yours? Any tips of what I should look for.

Thank you

ps. I have some oil in the coolant too

I know it's a bit late, but the easiest way to find the leak is to pressurize the system. See the photos in this thread

Have you found where the oil is coming from, is it emulsified?


TTFN

[Ekapol]

Cheers guys. I appreciate the replies.

Yes, the oil is emulsified. Looks almost like a piece of abstract in the coolant tank I have a picture somewhere. Have to dig it out first.

I'm now thinking about using some other type of air filter after hearing many stories about what it could do to your engine. I might want to go back to paper type like what Marie's using. Only problem is that it doesn't look as pretty as the K&N

[Ekapol]

The main hose was fixed. Now I found another leak near the thermostat housing. Can't really point my finger where it is from.

[DeanG]

You can get the self almagating tape a sailing supply houses in white.

[Ekapol]

Thank you DeanG. Got my Samco hose kit today. Hooray

[Ekapol]

I had done changing 9 out of all 13 hoses. Couldn't get to the bottom hose. I might have to remove few other parts

Wonder if anybody has a tip or 2. So far I haven't touch the bottom hose yet but...

Today I found constant dripping from around the end of the bottom hose, where it is really hard to reach the belt clip. Found a trace of coolant there but wasn't sure if they were from the hose itself. Hope there is no where nearby that can crack/break off.

This morning I topped it up again. Notice constant leaking from around that area now. (around 1 foot towards the front of the car from the oil filter)

[Doug]

dude, better change that hose out befor eall hell breaks loose!