well, have had some relatively trouble free running out of her. bar the shocking fuel economy, the new air filter fouling up, finally got the fuel mix about right. I do suspect she is getting tired overall, but I went to get her out of the garage yesterday only to find her life blood (radiator fluid) all over the floor. and yes, she had antifreeze in her.Gutted.I'd had the radiator proffessionally flushed and checked when I was working on her.Have filled her up and run her, and can't see where there is any leak, and it hasn't blown out the top.Had run her fine the day before, never overheats.Radiator isn't bubbling, but it pretty frothy, so I'm suspecting head gasket -but no leaks now!God that wee car is giving me some grief!
tigra,
Jun 18, 9:30am
First step for Head gasket -Check the oil dipstick and see if there's any sign of water mixing with oil!
ladyjet1,
Jun 18, 10:00am
mm, have had a look at that, there's no sign of contamination on dipstick, but I have been aware of condensation on oil cap, and it's been breathing pretty heavy, hence why I've been thinking she's getting a little tired.I just can't figure out how she's dumped the water, she's garaged and has antifreeze, hard frost overnight that night, if I thought she didn't have antifreeze I might have thought tank had frozen and expanded. can't see any leaks now.:-/
poppajn,
Jun 18, 10:09am
Check thewee hose at the front between the head and block.
kazbanz,
Jun 18, 10:24am
Tigra--the water has dumped on the floor so I suspect more like a leak in the water pump or a hose
bwg11,
Jun 18, 10:25am
Condensation and sludge in the rocker box is almost a feature of the BMC "A" Series.As poppajn says, check the by-pass hose.
socram,
Jun 18, 10:44am
If it has dumped ALL the water, suggest you check the bottom hose. Was it replaced when you had the radiator done! Or, stupid question, are the hose clips tight!The bypass hose is at the top of the engine (under the head) so if that fails, you lose less water when the car is standing than a bottom hose.Noting how much water you had to put in when topping up might be a clue.
Refilling and noting no leaks may not only be a head problem, but one where the leak is only apparent after the car is up to temperature and the system under pressure.
Generally, when a bypass hose goes when on the move, you can often smell the steam, but a bottom hose can fail and the water goes under the car and you wouldn't smell it, but the heater would go cold, then the temperature (gauge) would rise briefly, before falling, then rising again.
Also, check heater valve and heater hoses.
Old rally trick.If you ever remove the radiator on an older Mini, modify the shroud so that you can get at the bottom radiator hose clips without removing the rad or the shroud.
ladyjet1,
Jun 18, 11:19am
Grrr, I've been over everything. nothing is leaking. heater is working (thou not as good as a modern car!)The smell you mentioned socram. I do vaguely recall a "smell" driving home on saturday, parked her up and found her body fluids the next day. but the bypass hose (and every other hose) looks fine, all in great condition.All hose clamps are tight.Heat is definately coming through heater hoses as they should.It looks like it's definately dumped from the bottom of the radiator, lots of fluid on front of subframe, and no sign of leakage around waterpump or hoses. I've got her running in the garage at the moment.
ladyjet1,
Jun 18, 11:20am
and . I'm sure she dumped most of her water.
ladyjet1,
Jun 18, 11:22am
so I'm thinking socram, must have leaked under load like you say. and I just got her home in time, she didn't overheat.
ladyjet1,
Jun 18, 11:38am
I've just had her well heated. put a bit of load on her, no leaks.Shut heater value off (blew cold air in the car) and opened it again, all good.But. she's breathing really heavy, I can actually see vapour coming out the wee hole in the oil cap,and. she just over ran when I turned her off :-(Not a good sign me finks.run out of money to do anything major with her now,took me a year to fix her up, at least I've had 3 months of (mostly) fun driving her.
snoopy221,
Jun 18, 3:55pm
Pop in to a local radiator place and get them to put a pressure tester on it. Or even a garage-only takes a minute.
supernova2,
Jun 18, 4:45pm
In no particular order, leaking hose, loose clip, bypass hose, leaking water pump, leaking heater tap on head, leaking frost plug,faulty thermostat, faulty rad cap, cap not fitted correctly, head gasket, split rad or tank, too big a screw used to attach rad shroud.What sort of fuel economy are you getting!Has it had a compression check!Mini has a copper/asbestos head gasket so you could try a retorque.I had a head off a Mini years ago and simplhy reused the gasket (yes I know it not a good idea) and it was driven hard for ten years after that without problems.Good luck.
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