Radiator Leak

[Zeeshan Ahmad]

Hi Friends
I normally drive my car with in city & not more than 10km per trip & 2-3 trips per day. Few days ago, i noticed some drops under bonnet & assumed radiator leak. I filled up the radiator upto cap & side bottle as well. Saw dripping again but after few days, leakage gradually vanished.
i could see water inside the cold radiator -2 inch below the cap & did not identify any level drop in side bottle. i thought i may have overfilled & just that water leaked.
On Saturday , when it was 34C outside, after a 80km long trip, i noticed a hissing ( steam) sound from the radiator,
Is it definitely a leakage?

Car is not heating up & water drop is ~1 Lit for 40-50km trip.

 

[Rumplestiltskin]

some radiators only leak when the car gets very hot and pressure rises.

Maybe take it to a radiator place and ask them to pressure test it.

 

[mpower]

water shouldn't drop at all and a small leak will one day just go on you.

pressure test is the way to go.

 

[Bowen]

Radiator cap? It's cheap option lol

 

[ari666]

air conditioner running?

 

[Keegzzz]

Could be your radiator cap no longer holding pressure or maybe one of the radiator hoses not clamped properly but yeah like stated above get a pressure test done asap because it will bite you in the ass.
Steam won't necessary leave a puddle. And you may be leaking coolant but it won't show from the overflow bottle straight away as it won't siphon water back into the radiator until it cools down

 

[Androo]

Could be the radiator body has a stress crack where the brackets that bolt it to the chassis are. Then it may only leak when the pressure is enough. I had this happen to me and I only noticed the leak a few minutes after I turned it off. A cold pressure test may not find this as the radiator body needs to be hot, so a hot pressure test is the way to go.