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Topic: water loss (Read 1063 times) |
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joe-satch
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joe satriani is the best guitarist in the world.
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water loss
« on: Sep 12th, 2008, 12:19pm » |
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hi all members,i had a call from our daughter not to long ago...she drove down to brighton today...i checked over the ultima for her yesterday...topped up the water....screen wash, oil etc...all was well....now shes in brighton..and due to come home soon..she checked the water level..all the water in the expansion bottle had GONE.....so where has it all gone?....no drips....no puddles....no steam.....no wet carpet,no water from the exhaust.....i hope not into the engine...but she did say that the engine is running very nicely...no miss fire,well thats something....so i told her to fill lots of bottles with water and stop every few miles to check and if need be top up with water.until she gets home..and i will give the engine a look over at the weekend....would any members care to comment on this??...thanks very much..regards den.  .
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Tompion
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1997 2.3 Ultima estate.
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Re: water loss
« Reply #1 on: Sep 12th, 2008, 1:25pm » |
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Do you mean you topped up with water, or did you use the correct coolant mix?
If water has been used for some time (not that it should really need topping up very often) then it is possible the coolant has been significantly diluted. This would lower the boiling point so that it could boil and vent out of the overflow.
Faulty pressure cap? - The system should pressurise to raise the boiling point.
What engine is it?
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joe-satch
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joe satriani is the best guitarist in the world.
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Re: water loss
« Reply #2 on: Sep 12th, 2008, 1:56pm » |
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hello tompion,thank you for your thought...well there is anti-freeze in the engine..(its a 2.3)...there was no guggling from the cooling system...just seems the expansion bottle empties..im going to have a look for any splits in it over the weekend...and give the cooling system a very good look over..i did change the thermostat a few months ago...there was no problems that we saw at that time,dont want to drain the anti-freeze out and put fresh in and it goes to waste untill the leak has been found. .thank you....regards den. .
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Tompion
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1997 2.3 Ultima estate.
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Re: water loss
« Reply #3 on: Sep 12th, 2008, 2:48pm » |
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As it's the 2.3 run your fingers under the stat housing, mines always wet under there, because my inlet manifold/stat housing is cracked. Apart from that I don't normally see any indication as to why my coolant level goes down, although my coolant lose isn't as great as yours.
I find it’s very easy to get an airlock in the head – this can lead to water being forced out of the overflow due to localised overheating. When an airlock happened with mine even with a fairly cool engine quite a lot of water rose up and flowed over the top of the header tank when I unscrewed the cap.
You could tie an empty bottle to the wing and drop the overflow pipe into it to see if it’s coming out of there.
Keep an eye on the temperature gauge, if it drops right down that can be worse than going high as it could mean the coolant level is lower than the sensor which in turn may mean no coolant in the cylinder head.
Dave
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joe-satch
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Re: water loss
« Reply #4 on: Sep 12th, 2008, 3:46pm » |
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hi and thank you dave,all what you have said will be taken on board...good idea about a bottle and the over-flow pipe going into it...well our daughter has got back from brighton..as the wife and i have just got home from her place,i looked under the bonnet.....expansion bottle is up to the max mark..with no loss of water...  ...ok thats not a bad thing..but it does cause some head scratching.i would rather there be a problem that i can see...other than a problem that happens now and again.thanks very much dave...happy motoring..regards den.
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Snoopy
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Re: water loss
« Reply #5 on: Sep 12th, 2008, 5:27pm » |
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Keep an eye on it it could just be that it needed a drop or two of water as there is always some evaporation/loss over time and you may have had a slight air lock in there and the good run after the top up has cleared it all and now its back up to where it should be .
If it is suggest checking the specific gravity of the coolant mix .... it should be 50/50 for max protection .
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joe-satch
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joe satriani is the best guitarist in the world.
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Re: water loss
« Reply #6 on: Sep 12th, 2008, 5:48pm » |
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hi and thank you snoopy,will do..once the leak..if any..is found..our daughter will get dad..(me)..to drain and fill with a fresh anti-freeze mix..50/50.the car is due a oil and filter change...and an auto gearbox drain,new filter and atf....before the winter sets in. .regards den.
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Highlander
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13 Scorpios, XR4x4, Suzuki SJ413 for off road :)
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Re: water loss
« Reply #7 on: Sep 26th, 2008, 12:13am » |
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I've just had a similar thing happen with mine, turned out the pressure release valve in the cap was being held open by a bit of dirt so there was no pressure in the system..
Ran fine and never lost a drop until i turned the engine off, then after a couple of minutes cooling off it dumped most of the coolant out of the overflow pipe!!
I've ran it with no cap before and never had that problem, must be some kind of physics thingy explanation, slight pressure then cooling....... something like that 
Anyway, opened up the cap, cleaned all the gunge away, cleaned the rubber seals and put it back together, been running a week now with no further problems
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gozz
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Re: water loss
« Reply #8 on: Sep 26th, 2008, 8:26am » |
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Highlander.
I've got a spare Cossy here which my daughter is borrowing due to them committing gross neglect on their Vectra.I unscrewed the filler cap when it was hot to gently release the pressure,the coolant gushed out of the overflow,and as the pressure lowered she started singing like a kettle.I know about the reasons for a pressurised system,but to me the foregoing situation is uncommon.Is the Cossy susceptible to this owing to the balmy thermostat arrangement do you think ? the previous owner had a new radiator but no thermostat,the temp gauge stays half way,but seems to be slow reaching it.What are your experiences in the past ?
GOZZ
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joe-satch
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joe satriani is the best guitarist in the world.
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Re: water loss
« Reply #9 on: Sep 26th, 2008, 11:40am » |
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yes i see....i have followed the advice given to me in this thread by tompion..i have placed an empty plastic bottle under the bonnet with the expansion pipe over flow placed into it...its been there for a few days now...and its still dry....and the expansion bottle is still on max...so im still puzzled.but at least the expansion bottle is still holding the water level. .
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Highlander
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13 Scorpios, XR4x4, Suzuki SJ413 for off road :)
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Re: water loss
« Reply #10 on: Sep 26th, 2008, 7:13pm » |
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Not had a problem with it overflowing Gozz no.
Now i'm not being at all sexist or saying anything about women and cars but are you SURE your daughter is looking at the expansion tank and not the screen wash??
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on Oct 17th, 2011, 12:35pm, Simmo wrote:| I give up ! Too much for an old boy! |
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Jonnycab
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Former owner of 2.3 Ultima Facelift saloon
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Re: water loss
« Reply #11 on: Sep 27th, 2008, 3:32am » |
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Not wishing to point any fingers, but are you sure that no-one has inadvertently poured a bottle of radweld in it ?
Have a good look around the cooling system & look for any white chalky residue which might indicate where the leak is, or could have been
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joe-satch
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joe satriani is the best guitarist in the world.
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Re: water loss
« Reply #12 on: Sep 27th, 2008, 9:38am » |
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hi all members...ha...ha...well no highlander.....it is the expansion bottle she and i have been looking at..but for some reason its now holding the water level.not that im complaining...no nothing like that around any pipes..jc....and no one has poured anything into the cooling system..other than water and anti-freeze..thank you for all the replies..regards den. .
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gozz
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Re: water loss
« Reply #13 on: Sep 27th, 2008, 11:06am » |
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joe.
I think Highlander meant my daughter re the tank confusion,I muscled in on your posts,apolgies
GOZZ 
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joe-satch
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joe satriani is the best guitarist in the world.
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Re: water loss
« Reply #14 on: Sep 27th, 2008, 11:45am » |
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 ...sorry for my confusion gozz........not a problem mate.. .regards den.
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matt1987
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Re: water loss
« Reply #15 on: Sep 29th, 2008, 10:05am » |
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hi
it could be down to a air lock in the system which in turns when runnihng it gets blown through by the water which goes into the expansion bottle which then pushes all the water out to fill the void in the coolant system. hence the water loss in the expansion bottle.
we have this at work when we do a coolant change we drain the whole coolant sytem, replace with water and coolant and run the car with the car off, this will expell any air in the system, run for approx 5 mins, replace cap and take for a short drive with the heating on full, bring car back switch off and let to cool and top up if any water is needed.
this is one theory hope this helps.
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joe-satch
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joe satriani is the best guitarist in the world.
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Re: water loss
« Reply #16 on: Sep 29th, 2008, 11:07am » |
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thank you very much matt1987...will give that a try if the water level goes down again...regards den. .
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matt1987
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I'm a YaBB newbie!
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Re: water loss
« Reply #17 on: Sep 29th, 2008, 9:24pm » |
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that is ok joe
also check the dipstick for water in the oil, around the head for oil to verify that the head is leaking or not
or purchase a tester for the rad which can identify oil vapour in the coolant we use it it is a good indicator of a blown headgasket or one that is going.
regards
matt
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joe-satch
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joe satriani is the best guitarist in the world.
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Re: water loss
« Reply #18 on: Sep 30th, 2008, 1:33pm » |
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thanks again matt1987.i did do an oil and filter change on the car last week,and only oil came out of the sump drain plug,and the water loss had been happening for a few months...today..its still up to its max level,on the next dry day im changing the auto box fliud as sometimes the car has no drive..so worth a fliud change i think...and filter of course.//regards den. .
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