Coolant Temperature Light

[Guest Cepheus]

Temperature warning light started to flash on the way home tonight. Stopped, turned engine off, restarted engine and it stayed off for a couple of minutes but then started flashing again. Got home and checked the coolant reservoir which was completely empty. The engine temperature guage stayed at normal driving temperature for the 8 miles home though, including the time when stuck at the incredebly annoying traffic lights on the Birmingham New Road that take 5 minutes to change to green!

 

Now, obviously the light is because the reservoir is empty and fluid levels low in the coolant system, but why would it suddenly do this? I can't see any obvious leaks from any of the hoses visible in torchlight (but will have a good rummage in daylight tomorrow). Are there any common weak points in the hoses or joints I should look for first or anywhere else that I could be losing coolant from?

 

There are no leaks inside the car (footwells are dry) and CC works fine for hot and cold air so I think I can rule heater matrix out.

 

Any help or advice gratefully appreciated :angry2:

[Guest wolfie]

coolant tank cap? seal fails and allows seepage! check the seal for signs of age, cracks or folds?

[Guest neil_wiles]

The small expansion pipe on the back of the header tank only has a spring type clip holding it on it may have perished or split, the leak would go down the inside of the bulkhead through the scuttle drain so may not be obvious from the engine bay.

[raymac]

Possible head gasket? lets hope not ^_^

[Guest Cepheus]

Managed to catch up on sleep missed through too much work over the festive season and been out to care for the Gal.

 

Filled up the header tank to the max level with only 2.5 pints of water, which was a relief. started the engine and started squeezing coolant tubes to kmake sure fluid was running through ok. Stopped the enginer and opened the header tank up to find nice blue/green coolant still up to the max level! Felt the liquid and it was lovely and oil free ... woohoo! No floating oil slick on top of the coolant either.

 

Re-inspected the pipes in grey murky rainy daylight and found a bubbling just under the surface of the pipe coming from the top of the header tank towards the rear of the engine bay, which is where I'm guessing and hoping that the leak is coming from.

 

 

 

By the looks of it, that pipe is connected to another larger pipe near the bulkhead but I can't see how I can replace that pipe without having to do the other larger one too? Any ideas on the best way forward? Remove the damaged part of the pipe and splice in new? Is there a way to replace just that pipe? Or replace the damaged pipe and the larger one at the join lower down the larger pipe?

[Guest gooner52]

if you cant take it off without taking other pipes off

 

i would get a copper joint,and add the new pipe into that ;)

[Guest Cepheus]

OK ignore my last post, things are worse than I first thought ;) Coolant is dripping out of the near side corner of the radiator from what I can see. Have dismantled the front end of the car and prety certain that its coming from the bottom join of the rear most part of the rad. I haven't managed to get under the car properly though to confirm as I haven't got any ramps or axle stands to lift the car up while I remove the under tray and investigate properly.

 

If it is the rad, can this be patched up or does it need replacing? If replacement, how easy a DIY job is it or how much would people reckon for a garage to do it?

 

Help appreciated :16: :16: :16:

[Guest neil_wiles]

From what I can recall the radiator has clamped end caps and therefore a repair is not a DIY listed function (I dont know about you but I dont have a press or the tooling to re-close and end cap.) but a replacement should be well within the bounds of the average DIY car mechanic. Although it may be a tad on the expensive side.

 

;)

 

There are several being broken here

[Guest Cepheus]

Cheers for that Neil. Ford want

[Guest gooner52]

paul aaron raditors on ebay quoted

[Guest Cepheus]

Good man G! Getting better all the time! :16:

 

Reckon you could make a fortune with www.AskJames.co.uk Ford car parts locator lmao ;)

[Guest gooner52]

happy to help m8 ;)

[ronb]

Just in case it helps someone else -- I had same problem but it turned out just to be a sender which had a tiny leak at the base where it screws in (according to the back-street fella that finally sorted it). Didn't leak unless under pressure -- so very hard to spot!

[ronb]

But I did eventually have to replace the rad as well ...