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Leaking coolant

Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2004 8:47 pm
by springer
Hi All,

Hoping someone may have something to add here.

My 92 Pajero uses about 3-400 mls of water everytime I drive it, doesn't matter if its a 15min or 3hour drive always uses the same and just gets lower and lower progressively.

Only seems to disappear after it has been left overnight and then driven. Radiator will still be full when you check in the morning but after driving short distance it drops.

Noone can figure it out, have taken it to a few mechanics and replaced, water pump, all heater and radiator hoses, throttle body o-ring and gasket for choke and done headgasket test(no probs) and heater core is not leaking.

That about leaves the manifold. Any one have a similar experience with this before I go pulling this apart as well?

Seems like some sort of seal is shrinking over night as it cools down and let water out, or pumps water out for the first few minutes until it heats up in the morning and the seal expands and stops water leaking out. Been pressure tested for hours etc and always holds pressure now those other things have been replaced and there is no water visible exernally, on anything like welsh plugs etc. but still water is going somewhere???

Cheers Paj

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 4:48 pm
by Bitsamissin
Yeah thats a real strange one.
I did have a similar problem on an old Sigma, it was loosing a similar amount of water daily.
Turned out to be a micro-crack in the engine block just below a welch plug and would only leak when fully warm and under load (not at idle).
Pressure testing the cooling system didn't reveal anything either.
I only noticed it when I cleaned the block of gunk and then could see the water stains, nothing dripped on the ground as it all evaporated on the hot engine block. Some Chemiweld fixed that problem.