Coolant leak by bottom rad hose

[MK21800]

Hello, as usual please excuse my very basic questions. I have only very elementary mechanical skills and knowledge.

Noticed a slight coolant leak. I've taken a photo of it for you. It seems very very slight, like if you run the car for about an hour, about 2mm of coolant comes out of the header tank, that kind of thing.

Taken photo for you.

I couldn't detect any moisture around the underside of the bottom hose, was worried it might be a crack in the radiator because the underside of the actual hose is dry. Anyway, I gave the jubilee clip a quarter of a turn nip earlier, I'll see what that does.

Edit - no water between where hose joins and rad and where the water actually is. That's why I was a bit eh? about it. It's almost like it's coming from the rubber bit at the bottom (the rad mount?)

Any thoughts? Probably (hopefully) just the hose.

tehcoolant.jpg

[james butler]

if the hose joint to the rad is dry then its most likely the radiator itself leaking from one of the cores.
a new radiator isnt that expensive around £40 from euro car parts and you can change it in a short amount of time.

DO NOT be tempted put radweld or eggs or other snot into your water system to seal up the leak unless you want the entire water system to stop working.
so many people have done it, only to block up the heater matrix, small water passages aroung the carb and manifold or at the very least ends up reducing a % of the rads cooling efficiency.

[MK21800]

Ah yes. Thank you James. I had a look at a diagram of a radiator and there are the cores at the bottom. That would make sense.

Are these repairable? Or is it just new rad time?

How long have I got with it? In other words, at what kind of a rate does these get worse?

I'm not a radweld or an egg kind of a guy, don't worry about that. I know that this is undesirable, especially in our lovely classics.

Guess for now it's just carry around coolant and keep checking time, right? She runs fine, temp reached about 60% earlier in traffic jam but then fell again when fan kicked in.

Also, what's that G48 stuff like? Should I get some of that? Or go more old school. I understand the importance of getting the correct one (in my language "the blue one not the pink one").

[james butler]

i just use blue ready mix anti freeze and chuck it every 2 years.
http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Volks ... cff&000397
you can get away with a small leak but not a good idea because when the engine is running the system becomes pressurized so will leak even more, so it would be hard to say how long it will last if you leave it.
and yes i would buy a new rad as its more cost effective.
if yours is carbed like mine then the link below should be the one you need
http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Volks ... 37e&000261
recores would usually be done to rare or expensive rads because of the cost involved with recoring a rad.

[MK21800]

Ah cheers James, thanks for the links. Mine's a Scala injection.

Funny, took her for a semi-long run earlier, about 3/4 hour or an hour, there was slight damp there when I got back, but not dripping down on to the floor like it was yesterday. coolant didn't seem to have gone down in the header tank. Hardly any problem at all. Was booting it some of the time as well. Just got it back on the road, so was testing it out.

Perhaps it does it a bit worse when it gets hot, in the drive earlier I didn't get into any traffic jams or anything, so I was just running at 40% the whole time, like they do.

Anyway, cheers for the help, appreciate it.

[Nate]

See the white patch next to the end of the hose? That could be the cause. Crystals formed from dried out coolant which stop the hose sealing. No saying this is rhe cause, but worth checking if there is a free fix before forking out for a rad.

Or get a pressure tester on it and watch for the leak

[duggers]

I got a new rad delivered for £30 when i found mine had developed a very Garden Force style water feature.
Hoses are quite old and used spring clips rather than jubilee types when new. As the hoses get old they don't expand/seal quite as well so are prone to a bit of leakage.

[MK21800]

As I mention on my rad fan thread, it doesn't seem to be leaking currently. I'll keep an eye on it over time. Perhaps it was the crystalised anti freeze thing nate mentioned and a little nip on the jubilee clip sorted it? I'll monitor it closely.