Loosing coolant, but no leaks/water in oil!?

I can't for the life of me work out where this water is going.

Currently it goes from min to max in around 400 to 500 miles (Although time does differ between checks).

I've looked at every joint from cold to the fan kicking in and nothing. Nothing in the oil either.

Car has done 74000 miles and I don't rag it from cold (IE let it warm up first).

Where is my water going? It's slightly concerning as I think the rate of water loss is getting quicker…

One thing to note was my mechanic noted that there was quite a lot of water coming out of my exhaust, and even today it was producing steam and it was a warm day!

Headgasket weeping into the cylinders perhaps? Radweld do anything? Ideas?

Other than that running sweet as a nut, started on the button after not being used for 4 weeks! Tappets getting a tad loud but nothing an adjustment won't sort!

Cheers guys.

your not getting wet carpets are you ? my guess would be heater matrix leaking

pirelli said

your not getting wet carpets are you ? my guess would be heater matrix leaking

Nope! Dry as anything in there!

Although having a closer look I *think* it's weeping from the bottom coolant house attachment point on the expansion tank!

hi mate a bit off topic but i noticed your from bristol, haven't heard from you over the past few months

you coming to volksfest? ill keep your name in mind and let you know when the bristol lot meet up if you like would be nice to see more than 3 mk1s in bristol…

I'm a Uni student down here, I've been to the Berkshire meets before now…

I may attend the Bristol meet but depends on where I am and what else is happening to be honest!

Long shot but could it be evaporating out the expanstion tank cap when hot??

I'm in the same boat re the min and max marks.  I actually thought my HG might be a problem so I whipped the head off and had it re-furbed (I had very noisy tappets developed recently so I has the lot done including the valves and all the seals etc etc anyway).  Head back-on, ran through the new hydraulic tapppet ding and just enough miles after everything settles back down again I think I'm still left with a coolant link.

I looked at the expansion bottle cap first before anything else -new one about £3 -that halved my consumption initially a long while back.

Radiator leak -damn things are hard to find, mine seems OK though not ruled out a new one yet
Thermostat housings I'm told are bad for leaking -mine's OK,m no drops or signs of any leakage
Coolant pumps -look for signs of weeping, mine has none
Coolant hoses, once disturbed an old hose never seals agin, I'm looking for new coolant hoses for mine now just to rule out anything -they're not expensive at all

…my exhaust has always spat out copious ammounts of black water (hot or cold, long or short journeys).  Never got round to finding out properly why yet  but it worries me.

Kep us updated how you get on please.

Cheers,

Richard