HELP; LCR coolant leak...

[J@mes]

Hi peeps.

I noticed 3 and half weeks ago when I started my car after 20 seconds the temp light came on and was beeping so I stopped the car and checked the manual and it said check the coolant. Sure enough the coolant was empty so I topped it up. I had to put 600ml in to get it to the max level. I have been keeping my eye on it and it is only a very very slow leak. In 3 and half weeks it has gone done to 3/4 full in the coolant bottle, so it hasn't dropped much from the max mark!

Today I put the car on axle stands in the hope to find the leak, but no joy!

I can however see the leak (only from under the car though) has dripped down the bottom left part of the engine, kind of below the charge pipe. I can see the leak from half way up the engine roughly (there are lots of things in the way) near the big bottom cog of the aux belt, but for the life of me I cannot find the source of the leak!

Has anyone got any ideas?

If I cannot find the leak, as a last resort what do ppl think of using redweld on turbo charged cars? I have used it before on old cars and it has always worked a treat, but they were NA engines and they had rad leaks. I would be worried to use radweld, even if only using say half the bottle as the last thing I would want to do it block the turbo! but hopefully it will not come to this!


Cheers,
James.

 

[LEE69]

Water pump is around that area

 

[Muttley]

I wouldn't use Radweld.

I did use K-seal on my old TDI 110, and it gave notrouble throughout the remaining 18months of the car's life (totalled by a whitevanman).

However since the leak is in the area of the water pump and that is a known weakness on LCR's I'd get that checked first. Apparantly if you remove the thermostat you can get a finger to the back of the pump to check if it's breaking up.

 

[J@mes]

I had the water pump (with metal impeller) changed at the same time as the cam belt about a year ago!

 

[Dan1720v]

Thermostat housing is on the front, and has some interesting ways of leaking I found.

 

[Muttley]

My leak proved to be a corner of the radiator. It was dripping on to the undertray and then leaking out of the back of the tray.

 

[J@mes]

none of these sound like mine, though where is the thermostat housing exactly? near where I described?!

 

[filbro]

I had the water pump (with metal impeller) changed at the same time as the cam belt about a year ago!

I had same problem and could not believe water pump can last just over a year.
Symptons sound like water pump, if so leak will only get worse.........

 

[Dan1720v]

none of these sound like mine, though where is the thermostat housing exactly? near where I described?!

Thermostat housing is just behind the alt, they're plastic and can go pourous. I had a leak from mine and it took alot of investigation to find the source!

 

[J@mes]

I had same problem and could not believe water pump can last just over a year.
Symptons sound like water pump, if so leak will only get worse.........

I bl**dy hope not!!! water pump is working and car drives fine! Its not broken like my old one did (plastic impeller!) which made the engine overheat BUT no coolant loss!

Thermostat housing is just behind the alt, they're plastic and can go pourous. I had a leak from mine and it took alot of investigation to find the source!

I did try and check this area but couldn't see any leaks, its so hard to see though! =(

 

[t0m]

I'm stumped sorry mate

Hope you sort it though.

 

[d3m0niTe]

My leak proved to be a corner of the radiator. It was dripping on to the undertray and then leaking out of the back of the tray.

+1 I had the same

 

[Phillc]

The metal impeller water pump is well known to leak from the seal.

 

[J@mes]

definitely the leak is coming from towards the back not the front!

 

[J@mes]

The metal impeller water pump is well known to leak from the seal.

Really?!!! I got the one with a metal impeller because the oem plastic one is know to break, as mine did!

whats the remedy?!

I just checked and It was done 23 months ago (I thought last year!) and I have done 5.5k miles in that time. It was fitted at a very reputable garage (they used to be a SEAT dealer) so assuming it is a leak from the water pump, I may give them a call and ask what warranty there is on parts? Do you think it will be more than a year?

EDIT: just found this, and the pic is very similar to mine, though no water on my belt, not that I saw any in its position!
http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=314960&highlight=water+pump+seal

 

[Ronin225]

Heres a pic of the leaking seal on my metal impellored water pump, doesnt loose much but have to occasionally top up

 

[Phillc]

Thats the same as mine, when i fitted my new one to my new engine i put silicon around the face which should stop any future leaking, so i would say that thats all you could do to stop the leak, but its lots of work to do that.

 

[J@mes]

what do you have to do to do that? remove aux belt, then get to cam belt and remove that and then remove water pump, seal it and then reverse? DIY in a couple of hours?

Oh and how long has yours lasted so far?

 

[Phillc]

Yes basically you need to remove all the belts reseal the pump and put it all back together again, my engines not in the car yet so don't know - sorry. The one in my current engine is still leaking though.

 

[james.l]

Have you checked the coolant feed to turbo pipe?