96 Clio Williams losing water

[Ben m g]

I've recently bought a 96 Clio Williams which has been off the road for 8 years and I'm losing water no visible leaks but I have noticed that the electrical water pump doesn't come on but to be fair I don't know if it should it doesn't over heat the fan kicks in and out heaters are hot no water in the oil or vice versa and no visible smoke on start up please help

 

[White16valver]

Are you on williamsclio forum?

http://williamsclio.co.uk/

Quite quiet but plenty of knowledge!


Could be worth going round all the coolant pipes and their connections with kitchen roll while it's running, to see if it's pushing anything out when under pressure?

 

[Ben m g]

I'll try that the things getting annoying now it runs brilliant just this bl##dy water leak

 

[White16valver]

I'll try that the things getting annoying now it runs brilliant just this bl##dy water leak

Check the heater matrix behind the dash - are the carpets wet at all right up in the footwells?

Heater Matrix is a pig of a job (8 hours in the dealer book!) as it means pulling the dash forward, so I'm not sure if it would be good to be that or not - good if you can find and fix the leak, bad because it would be a lot of work!

 

[Ben m g]

The carpet isn't wet and I can't smell antifreeze with the heaters on its only after it's got hot and sat for abit and to be honest taking the dash out doesn't bother me aslong as it would fit it getting to the point of starting to change things and hope for the best

 

[White16valver]

You could start with the cheap things first and order a new radiator cap! Could be leaking from that when under pressure but because it's hot, it's evaporating straight off the hot rad?

Is the rad in good condition generally? I know that some rads can start to weep at joints between plastic and metal when old, for example.

It's not leaking around the thermostat housing, is it? (Does it have a thermostat housing? I can't remember if it pushes straight into the block!)

No leaks around the drain plug on the rad?


Other than that, I'm running out of ideas... lol

I see you've posted on WC forum but just in case...:
@midge @Coops Mk1 @northy

 

[Chambers_RS]

How do you know it’s leaking and not using it?Do you have patches under the car when parked up?

 

[Ben m g]

There's no patches underneath on morning start up there's no missing or smoke / steam out of the exhaust just seems to settle and lose it I've stripped abit off it tonight so I could get around the hoses but they were all ok but like white16valver has suggested new rad cap is going to be a start really don't want to but if I carries on I'll just break it

 

[Coops Mk1]

Compression test imo, that's the first check. And a coolant system pressure check too

 

[White16valver]

Thanks @Coops Mk1!


FWIW I had a weird case of using water with no visible reason for doing so (on another car, which had a full set of recent silicon hoses so I was pretty sure it wasn't any leaking hoses), but since changing the rad (that also came with a new cap) all leaks seemed to have stopped.


I wouldn't break it, though, gone are the days of them being worth more in parts than whole. If you do want to sell it, make sure to post it for sale on here!