leak in cooling system?

[fatvgute]

hey people i got a question about my cooling system, vn series 1. the other night i went for a pretty hard drive and came home the next morning to find my engine overheating a little...the temp gage was not that high but the engine was hot. so i chekd it out and turns out i had like 2cm of coolant left in the tank. i cheked it like 2 weeks ago and it was at full level or there abouts. so i think there must be a leak or something...any of youse had similar things or no wot could be wrong?
cheers any help appreciated

 

[Mark]

ah its leaking from somewhere. lol u just gotta find where. mabe your heater core. does ur cabin smell like coolant? mabe one of ur tank hoses is leaking. check for trade make streak lines. brown or green. depending on age of coolant!

 

[PhatVN]

just do what they did on Mythbusters
Put a raw egg in it :rofl:
it actually works

 

[fatvgute]

yea the cabin doesnt smell at all

haha yea mythbusters are just f@#kin crazy

 

[junglefeet]

i had a leak from behind my water pump on mine,,,,but check all hoses and stuff b4 you rip that off

 

[GTRVL]

If your car is stone dead mother f**ka cold and u drive out the driveway and put ur boot into it hard for 5-10min then cum home and park it. The coolant in the block has gotten too hot before the thermostat opens (assuming the car is now stopped and there is no air flow), then it opens and the radiator cap isn’t sealed (shuts as the WHOLE cooling system heats up because its part of the auto refill/over pressure system) and the LARGER HOTTER WATER from ur super hot block get pushed into your cooling system, when its at max volume/capacity it then gets pushed into the recovery tank (well till the radiator cap catches up to the temp. difference and shuts),... fills it up then pushes it through that little hose from the tank through the chassis to the ground. IN SHORT warm the car up to at least half the normal operating temp before you get your boot into it and don’t overfill your recovery tank :-D

 

[iwishmyVNwouldstart]

mate i dont know much about heater core etc, but so far as the actual cooling system is concerned, three main possibilites (that ive fixed on my car in the last 12 months)
1.radiator hoses
2. radiator side tanks or less likly, the alluminuim (i think) core
3. the bearing seal in your water pump

if its the radiator hoses, pretty easy to spot. if they are craked/perishing, its a lilky culprit. and even if they arent leaking, but look like shite, replace them anyway, about 20 bucks. ive got a series 3 ( i swear thats what it says in my manual) so that thermostat cover uses a gasket, not an o ring like in the series 1, that could be worth looking at too if its perished
if its the radiator itself, run the engine for about 10 mins or however long it takes to warm up, keep an eye on the radiator, if it starts pissing out coolant anywhere on the radiator, its a new one, normally about 130 too 200 from repco, plus new coolant, simple job, you wont need anything more than a spannner to take off the cooling fan, a screw driver and a set of pliers for the retaining clips. make sure you gte the right radiator but. and dont use radiator stopleak, it cloggs up your engine, if the leak is small enough, my mechanic suggested to me cracked pepper added to the coolant as a tempory solution, i didnt try that one either
the bearing seal on the water pump, i doubt this one is the case, because it shouldnt leak as much coolant as you described, but there is a weep hole on the underside of the pump pully, if coolant is coming out it, a sign that the seal is ratshit, and the pump needs replacing immedialty, the coolant will leak down and dry, showing as a white residue generally, or get a little mirror and check on the underside of the pully for coolant. this job is pretty easy to, but its alot more of a fiddle. a new water pump will set you back about 140 from repco.
also check the heater hoses in your engine bay. oh and i forgot if your oil has milky colour in it, or there is oil in your coolant, you ve got a stuffed head gasket. if thats the case you're probably best off leaving it to your mech

 

[Dayvo]

Check out the cap on you overflow tank . mine had a hairline crack in it , took me weeks to find out where the leak was coming from

 

[sircruisealotVS]

those radiators used in the vn's have plastic fittings comin off them (for the various hoses to connect to), ontop of whats already been said go over them with a torch and look for fine cracks...they can be hard to spot when the cars not running, but when it warms up those cracks get bigger and let alot of coolant out.

 

[commy92]

if your having probs finding it, take it down to a radiator shop and get it pressure tested. You shold also think about checking you oil incase of a head gasket... also check under the oil cap for merky shiat... Number 1 sign.