mystery loss of water - leak?evaporating?!?! wtf !!!!

ahoy all

am loosing ALL water in the engine in very short time - for example yesterday went from Sutton to Walton,maybe 10 miles,in HEAVY traffic.by time arrived the temp gauge was at the 3/4 mark,popped the bonnet,yup,no water AGAIN.my work is a 5 mile round trip but after a week all the waters gone just going there and back
want to resolve this b4 winter of course.
now - seems this is something that is going on while mobile coz there's no sign of a leak while stationary/parked up.a few of the larger hoses are brand new,one split dramatically on m26 a while back,just old and perished (like me  :cry: ).
no obvious signs of a leak,any ideas/tips/anything appreciated.
dont want to pour loads of radweld or junk into system and garage is beyond funds for the mo. ..

any thoughts much appreciated

cheers

LH

Go and get the head gasket tested at a local Garage .


Sorry , not good news .

Quick way,check oil level,good or white and creamy? oil filler cap clean or creamy? if either is creamy head gasket minimum ,I cracked a block last year on my clipper 8O ,took three head gaskets before we sussed that one out

thanks both for those.
oil is fine,car recently had compression check at garage and was fine
(it was in for running atrociously rough),does that eliminate head gasket?
also- my Bro is law was moaning saying "why do you have the heater on all the time?!?!" - i dont,but there is always hot air and not just from his gob.

btw i managed to post this in Injection by mistake,its got a Webber.doh.

Change the expansion tank cap for a new one - may sound daft but I had this some years ago - seemed to lose (not all the time) a lot of water. Changed the cap and it sorted problem. Would be a cheap fix if it is the problem :wink:

nice tip Hairyarse will get one asap and let you know how it goes.
certainly hope it does the trick will be well chuffed if thats all it is.
cheers.

check the waterpump it may be leaking more when its on the go meaning you wont see the water dropping

also worth checking if theres any rusty water stains in the bay anywhere ie on the underside of the bonnet :wink:

Ive had similar problem but im losing water from the cap, mines a 1.8 gti 1989 cabby.

I thought it was the head gasket straight away so i called the aa out because i didnt want to damage the engine further.

He was a very nice man (excuse the pun!) and took me through all the tests he carried out. All came back ok, static test, running test, cap pressure test, and cylinder leak test.

The first thing he said was head gasket but after the tests he was stumped on what it was, and he knew what he was on about!

Any ideas guy?

Sorry to hijack your thread btw

cheers Ben will have a look tomorrow.resorted to Radweld today so will see if thats made any odds.also will try to get that expansion tank cap this week asap.

no worries Jamo am interested to see what people say.this sure is a strange
and annoying problem,hopefully not as annoying at head gasket tho.
let me know if you have any joy,and good luck.

if youve used radweld you will need a water pump now    destroys the pump,ive seen it loads of times
Bert

merde!!!!
i had nasty gut feeling but everyone was telling me to do it.
yeah i know thats what Franz Stangl said  
cheers for the warning.
mind you if it were not for the car endlessly going wrong i would be forced to
confront the real world and get a life  8O

btw this is worth a read (i know its the wrong car but…)
 
http://www.fennelfamily.com/gti-vr6/engine/leaking_coolant_tank.html

update on this thread:

car passed water pressure test at garage.very decent bloke did thorough test took plugs out etc etc,- everything tickedy boo and only charged 25 quid,well worth it for the peace of mind knowing its not head gasket if you
ask me.
he said look in RH suspension wishbone its got water in it.he was right im too
thick to think of things like that,so he reckoned try the expansion tank cap.
expansion tank cap seemed outrageous price at thirteen quid (ow) but still better than what may have been/
will report if this has cracked it after a a few days driving around.

cheers to all.

if the cap doesn't work try this stuff http://www.steelseal.co.uk/ i have heard good things about it

Have you had any luck with your cap mate? mine is still doing it gonna take out the thermo stat and see what happens.
If that doesn't work i will be selling with the fault, ive just had it wax oiled all round aswell :cry:

Good luck!

ahoy all
sorry for delay in replies have been giving it a few days to see if the expansion tank cap had done the trick.
Jamo,i can only say that it has helped,its cut down the water loss maybe up to 75% it hasnt solved my prob 100%,though maybe it will for you.
i also changed the hose from the top of the rad to the expansion tank and
used ^%$?"*! expensive pipe too.i reckon the tank itself may be perished?!
the leaked water i can see (just went out to double check before posting) is
either under the tank or round the sill/seal on the top edge.
in short:
changing the cap has cut the leak down a LOT but in my case there is more
to it,it seems  

thats not to be an ingrate to Hairyarse who suggested changing the cap,nice one again mate,cheers.

I changed my stat last night, flushed the system and added new anti freeze. While running the car whilst stood to see if there was any leaks, i found where the water was coming from.

It was squirting out from around the sensor on top of the header tank. i removed it and tried to put it back in with some ptfe tape but i overtightened it and it snapped

Phoned vw up and there getting me the part tomorrow and its only 9 quid. hopefully this was the problem, ill update you when ive tried it!

Sorted
 Fitted the new switch on the header tank and no more loss of water!only cost ?9.44 better than paying ?400> for a new head gasket!

The old one had an hair line crack in it which was releasing water when the car was running upto temperature and the water was getting hot.

Hope you sort your problem mate, might be worth trying a new switch from vw? :dontknow:

good luck.

Its weird how somehting so small COULD cause so much outlay and heartache.

Interesting thread as my old VR6 had a similar issue (not the same outcome unfortunately).

I think a lesson is ro be careful ruling what isnt causing the issue as you are not always right.

I had just had a full service on it and it started going over half way over the temp gauge, so i thought that was odd, it never went any hotter.

So i was on my way to manc from london (M42 to be precise) and BANG temp went up and smoke started to come out the back, left it at a garage and as suspected HEAD GASKET. 3 weeks and ?1200 later after the head gasket, new chain runners and a new clutch i was on my way.

Drove from Oxford to Manc and no probs, perhaps her i should mention the guy put it all back together again and said that the temp still crept over the half way, so he replaced the thermostat and BINGO (or so we thought).

So i had a cracking weeekend, got in it to drive back doen and coolant light flashes, I thought it was winding me up. So RAC bloke turns up i tell him the history and he looks at the cap you were talking about and it had a small black band seal inside that was twsited and had been leaking water out, which was the reason my car went bang in the 1st place.

Needles to say i was annoyed, cost 30 quid for a bloody cap, but then it was tickty boo. For a while anyway…

I too have a mysterious water leak, so I changed the expansion tank and cap, but still the leak persists. But when I look under the car I can't see it leaking anywhere   Very annoying.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGH!!!!!



yesterday in the worst rainstorm since The Flood the head gasket went while on the M20 between Ashford & Maidstone.

 

THREE (count em!three!!) HOUR wait for the RAC.

an NOT a happy camper.

car had overheated in Hastings,pulled into petrol station,topped up water,
carried on towards home,thought it was just the "mystery problem".
then right at the worst moment the temp needle went off the gauge,
which was nice.so its going to be time to buy a moody runaround to get
to work and will have a go at doing the head myself (except the
skimming obviously) as dont have ?500 or whatever to chuck at a garage
who might not even do it properly.
if anyone wants to make an offer on the car as it is let me know,im
pretty disilusioned this morning.

"in the land of the blown head gasket the bicycle is king"