BF5 GT pissing coolant

[Shale]

Further to the conversations we were having all over the place in regards to my drooling mess of a Legacy...

Basically, it's losing coolant. More and more voraciously over time. Last night it lost so much it decided to start heading north on the temp gauge, something it's NEVER done on its new motor. It took nearly 2L of fluid to refill at the time, and another litre this morning.

The header tank leaks like a sieve, particularly after a hard day's boosting. It's got a new (as in out of the box) radiator cap on and it still dribbles. Always dried rusty crap left on top of it.

The same day it decided to break a sweat it had been dripping over the passenger's side of the engine bay.

I've topped it up with 1/3 of a bottle of ethylene glycol as you do - so I can see where the green is pissing out of. Today at lunch, a squiz in the engine bay revealed the majority of the mess originating from the two pipes running by the oil filler... dumb question. Are they heater core lines? F**ked if I can completely remember my way around an engine bay, I'm a girl ;D

Metal header tank and two new pipes, several new hose clamps looking probable at this point. I can't see any obvious cracks, or any mess coming from either of the radiator end tanks.

I will try to remember to take a few photos of the green spooge when I get home tonight...

[dubbedup]

5L of diesal and a match, should fix all you problems ;)

[Shale]

Only if I can soak you in it first, baby ;D

[dubbedup]

will be a change.... :

[Shale]

Deprived Dubbed is deprived o_O!

[Guest keltik]

The 2 hoses are heater return line and feed line from the header tank. If your header tank leaks, its quite possible for coolant to track its way down the pipe and end up dripping near the water pump.

The best way to fix all this for sure is to rip the intake manifold off and check all of the water pipes under there. Had to do this job on my GT and you can either spend hours fucking around and trying to find the problem or you can just dive into it and rip the intake off in the same amount of time.

Once the intake is off, then you just need to look for dried puddles and replace whatever hoses are worn. If you want to be ultra efficient and futureproof, replace the metal sections of those 2 hoses. Ive seen a few rust out. I replaced mine with rubber hose all the way.

[Shale]

Exactly what I needed to know, thanks for that. Makes a huge amount of sense.

Think the best option will be to park the ol' beast up for the week and rip the manifold off eh :-\ Should be easy to hunt down leaking hoses amongst all the plasticky, solid pieces of crap on the 20-year-old thing

[Munkvy]

Those ones by the exhaust manifold do sometimes die too, especially if you have no heat shields on the exhaust manifold. Ive had all of them die at various times and the one between the cam cover and the block is particularly nasty to get to.

[666SubSpeed]

 keltik said:

Once the intake is off, then you just need to look for dried puddles and replace whatever hoses are worn. If you want to be ultra efficient and futureproof, replace the metal sections of those 2 hoses. Ive seen a few rust out. I replaced mine with rubber hose all the way.

Dosn't the crossover pipe have sensors screwed into it? if so where would these go if you were to use silicone?it would be heaps better than metal, no rust.

Yeah, silicone FTW ;D

[G-unit]

on my old rs the hose under the throttle body split, was a bitch 2 find when i was hunting for the leak, i got them 2 replace all the hoses under there for safety

[Guest boostin]

Those 2 hoses by the oil filler are for the WAIC.

[BC5RA]

 boostin said:

Those 2 hoses by the oil filler are for the WAIC.

And these are not related to the coolant system, as some have been known to think.

If it's using water and you can't see it leaking or squirting from any of the numerous coolant hoses then it will be coming out the back or into the oil.

[Shale]

Yeah, they are completely separate systems aren't they? I do check my WAIC intermittently and it doesn't seem to have lost any fluid. Will peek at it again though, just to be sure.

The car often leaves a puddle under it from time to time; I've had a CSer or two follow me and let me know it's dribbling, and my boss pointed out last week that she'd dumped a large puddle after I pulled up. It's probably going to be a case of continuing the hunt after daytime trips to find the culprit, as I've seen coolant splurted from where the WAIC hoses connect up as well as from the header tank in fairly sizable quantities.

It's time for an oil change in the next week or so, so that'll be a good moment to see if there's water polluting muh oil. This engine has thus far seemed good, unlike the last, and whenever the water is low I've found a mess up the front of the engine bay.

Fun times :-\

[Munkvy]

Chuck it on a dyno and give it a good thrashing - thats where I found most of the weaknesses in my cars oil and water systems.

[ydragu]

stop driving it till you get it checked properly keep driving it and you could end up with a blowen headgaskit, cooling systems need to be presurised to keep the water below boiling point

[NotAWhiteGTB]

 Munkvy said:

Chuck it on a dyno and give it a good thrashing - thats where I found most of the weaknesses in my cars oil and water systems.

It works better if you up the boost to atleast 25psi.

[Shale]

Meh, freeboost it. ;D

And yeah, had a blown headgasket on the past engine. Former owner blew the waterpump and kept driving til the engine apparently seized...

Given the car is 20 years old and the motor isn't much younger, I'm not surprised the brittle, seized hoses have started to give up the ghost.

[Drunkenmonkey]

bring it up to temp jack it up and hunt this is how i found the leak on madness with the breather hole in the water pump!

[Shale]

Hmm wise idea. Hopefully it'll yield more results than staring and swearing so far If not, off goes the manifold if replacing my boned header tank doesn't help.

[Drunkenmonkey]

if you leave it running so it pressurize can you see drip under the car?

[Shale]

Only when it's dripping from the passenger's side. Apparently it dumps a proper trickle sometimes on boost (think it was Dave that called me from behind one night on the motorway) and it certainly lets loose on occasion when it's been parked up for a wee bit (usually at work) but the only really repeatable feature is that there is always water missing from the header tank (complete with water stains), and it's becoming more and more each time.

[Drunkenmonkey]

it will drain the header first, take bonnet off go for boost up and down road see if it leaks

[Shale]

Could be something to do over the weekend ;D

[BC5RA]

Don't make it hard on yourself.

Get the system under pressure and have somebody look over all the coolant carrying hoses.

Check the hoses around the oil cooler and water pump and the pump itself.

[Shale]

 BC5RA said:

Don't make it hard on yourself.

Get the system under pressure and have somebody look over all the coolant carrying hoses.

Check the hoses around the oil cooler and water pump and the pump itself.

I had considered waterpump, given it's something that's given a lot of people around here (myself included, in the past) hell.