Leaking water and rad fan?

[AmDaMan]

Hi today when I was waiting in traffic I noticed a bit of steam coming from under the bonnet, only slightly though, thought it may have been the car in fronts' exhaust.

Anyway parked it up and had a look, it i could hear a dripping every so often and a bit of water but couldn't see where from! Took a picture though and you can see it's dripping onto the lower pipe, so it must be from the top pipe but it looks fine!

Also I don't think I can every recall my rad fan coming on, will this just be the switch in the rad?

 

[edde]

Anyway parked it up and had a look, it i could hear a dripping every so often and a bit of water but couldn't see where from! Took a picture though and you can see it's dripping onto the lower pipe, so it must be from the top pipe but it looks fine!

Also I don't think I can every recall my rad fan coming on, will this just be the switch in the rad?

You won't often know the fans come on if you want to check leave the car idling with the bonnet closed for 5 minutes and you'll hear the fan cut in and out to maiantain the temp.

Could be a damaged radiator need to find out where the leak is the hole could be on the underside of the pipe near the bend,

 

[Fred@BTM]

check the level when the car is cold

 

[AmDaMan]

the level was ok this morning, after i topped it up yesterday. It only seems to do it after the car has been running a very long time of if I've been thrashing it so it must be a pressure thing.

Rad looks ok though, how hard is that pipe to change as it looks like it will be difficult. How much is it from Renault?

 

[AmDaMan]

anyone know the top hose part number from Renault?

cheers.

 

[AmDaMan]

Just had my warranty guy out to have a look and he didn't have a clue. He just wanted to get home, fat sack.

It's really pissing me off because I can't see it. I'd take the airbox / fan etc off but that's no good because the engine has to be hot for the steam to show. When the fan comes on it blows it through the front of the grill so it must be coming from the RAD?

I don't have time to mess about with garages either. Tried a bit of Radweld too and it didn't do a thing so now i've got a leaky system with dodgy radweld floating about. Anything I can do?

 

[lemonnobby]

the only thing to do is pressure test it. i have seen rads leak from down there on 172s or get the car on axle stands take undertray offf and run the car up. and see if you can see anything its easier from underneath

 

[AmDaMan]

who can pressure test it then? any garage? How hard is the fan to take off the rad? This would let me see a lot more.

 

[lemonnobby]

any garage can pressure test only takes 5 mins. its qutie hard to take the fan off in situ due to the space imo.

 

[AmDaMan]

ok i'll take it down to quickfit or something tomorrow, maybe they will be able to tell me more.

 

[Fred@BTM]

do go near a quickfit

take it to a professional garage and get them to pressurise the system, then you'll find the leak

 

[AmDaMan]

I don't know of any decent garages near here I usually do most of the stuff myself (when I had the valver)

Fred, how hard is it to remove the radiator? As the steam was coming from behind the black plastic from the fan.. Plus if it's steaming from that area it must be the rad as I can't see it steaming from anywhere else in that area?

Also is the 172 rad different to other MKII rads?

 

[ditz]

i made my own pressure tester.
we have a proper sykes pickavant one at work that i found useless because the caps for the expansion bottles you get either leak or loose pressure.
all i got was a bike tyre pump with a pressure gauge on it and cut the valve off.
hey presto one coolant system tester.
i have a selection of different diameter rubber hose /jubilee clipsband some bolts i use as blanking plugs.
all you do is locate a small coolant hose in the system that you think you can tap in to (normally the small hose going to the expansion bottle)
plug your tyre pump on the actual bottle, and block the hose you just pulled off with a bolt.
pump it up to 1 bar (dont exceed a bar) and watch it leak

 

[AmDaMan]

ditz that could be done as I have a foot pump. I also have a pressure bleeder for brakes, but the pressure may be too much.

Anyway I'm abit confused as to what you do? Surely blanking a hose off would send a bolt shooting out at 1bar? Also what adaptors do you use to connect the pump and where to?

 

[ditz]

ditz that could be done as I have a foot pump. I also have a pressure bleeder for brakes, but the pressure may be too much.

Anyway I'm abit confused as to what you do? Surely blanking a hose off would send a bolt shooting out at 1bar? Also what adaptors do you use to connect the pump and where to?

cooling systems are designed to run at 1 bar (its only 14.7 psi)
the bolt wont shoot off in the same way that all the other various engine hoses wont shoot off, just make sure its a tight fit.

dont think you understand about how i connect it though, from the tyre pump, all i have is a plain peice of hose - no connecters no nothing.

crap picture but you should be able to sus what i mean. its just a case of experimenting with different diameter hose to connect it all together.
you can safely pump it up to a bar, but like i say dont exceed it