carbore
Member
Hello,
Im in a bit of a quandary my my 1.4 Petrol AUA.
In November the car stared losing a bit of coolant, not a lot but then again I only do really short 2 mile round trips in it. Car would warn me and it was just below MIN when checked.
I didn't ignore this and looked for the cause and it was leaking from the gasket on the rear coolant pipe (aka death pipe on a 1.6). Now this was a bit of a surprise as that was replaced by me two years ago when I did a host of other work when I first got the car. Anyway I replaced it did a quick test and all was good.
A week or so later, doing a 5 mile 10 min run to drop kid at dance club, 8 mins in I had a coolant low BEEP, looked down and it was also a bit hot. I couldn't stop immediately as I was in singe track lane so wacked the heating up full and drove 500yds to the dance place and shutdown. I opened the bonnet expecting to just see the expansion tank low, but it was empty tray soaking and low and behold the bottom radiator hose was "off". My assumption was I had not correctly seated it and when the car got warm it blew it off. I recovered the car back to my house on a trailer, got a new spring clip and refitted.
A few days later, id done a short drive or two and checked levels, but this day I set off from home (car cold) and only a few hundred yards up the lane and BEEP. Turn back, opened up and this time a hose had come off the thermostat housing. Again I thought maybe this was me, re-seated and carried on. (if you have ever done this job, you know its a PITA)
Now a month later, I have done yet more short trips but the car hardly has time to warm up. Today its now leaking coolant AGAIN and it looks like its the rear pipe lower seal (I'm yet to get it on ramps, but its not the thermostat hosing side its dripping from)
To me this is getting silly, im not usually error prone in my car work, I have done cambelts on my Elise, Clutch on my tractor, loads of oil changes, Disks and pads on lots of cars and I don't screw things up.
Im now concerned I have HGF (long term or maybe caused by the initial hose failure) and the cooling system is becoming over pressurised by the engine, the leaks are due to the pressure finding the weakest link and blowing it out. I also think I see "mayonnaise" on the oil cap, and also when I was doing the first leak behind the engine I also replaced the oil separator which was casing a vacuum leak. The separator was a bit mayonnaise but I put that down to age an it doing its job.
What do I do next?
Replace the engine pipe seal? (are there bad ones to avoid, should I use any additional sealant)
How to check for HGF, drain inspect the oil, take it to my local garage for some kind of test?
The coolant reservoir doesn't look oily by the way.
Fortunately I have another car, so not desperate and can plan an approach, however I do love my little A2 and use it for all my short trips.
Thoguhts?
PS car has about 128k miles. Patchy service history before I owned it. Looked after well by me for last 2 years.
Im in a bit of a quandary my my 1.4 Petrol AUA.
In November the car stared losing a bit of coolant, not a lot but then again I only do really short 2 mile round trips in it. Car would warn me and it was just below MIN when checked.
I didn't ignore this and looked for the cause and it was leaking from the gasket on the rear coolant pipe (aka death pipe on a 1.6). Now this was a bit of a surprise as that was replaced by me two years ago when I did a host of other work when I first got the car. Anyway I replaced it did a quick test and all was good.
A week or so later, doing a 5 mile 10 min run to drop kid at dance club, 8 mins in I had a coolant low BEEP, looked down and it was also a bit hot. I couldn't stop immediately as I was in singe track lane so wacked the heating up full and drove 500yds to the dance place and shutdown. I opened the bonnet expecting to just see the expansion tank low, but it was empty tray soaking and low and behold the bottom radiator hose was "off". My assumption was I had not correctly seated it and when the car got warm it blew it off. I recovered the car back to my house on a trailer, got a new spring clip and refitted.
A few days later, id done a short drive or two and checked levels, but this day I set off from home (car cold) and only a few hundred yards up the lane and BEEP. Turn back, opened up and this time a hose had come off the thermostat housing. Again I thought maybe this was me, re-seated and carried on. (if you have ever done this job, you know its a PITA)
Now a month later, I have done yet more short trips but the car hardly has time to warm up. Today its now leaking coolant AGAIN and it looks like its the rear pipe lower seal (I'm yet to get it on ramps, but its not the thermostat hosing side its dripping from)
To me this is getting silly, im not usually error prone in my car work, I have done cambelts on my Elise, Clutch on my tractor, loads of oil changes, Disks and pads on lots of cars and I don't screw things up.
Im now concerned I have HGF (long term or maybe caused by the initial hose failure) and the cooling system is becoming over pressurised by the engine, the leaks are due to the pressure finding the weakest link and blowing it out. I also think I see "mayonnaise" on the oil cap, and also when I was doing the first leak behind the engine I also replaced the oil separator which was casing a vacuum leak. The separator was a bit mayonnaise but I put that down to age an it doing its job.
What do I do next?
Replace the engine pipe seal? (are there bad ones to avoid, should I use any additional sealant)
How to check for HGF, drain inspect the oil, take it to my local garage for some kind of test?
The coolant reservoir doesn't look oily by the way.
Fortunately I have another car, so not desperate and can plan an approach, however I do love my little A2 and use it for all my short trips.
Thoguhts?
PS car has about 128k miles. Patchy service history before I owned it. Looked after well by me for last 2 years.
