i had mine gassed last year and it all leaked out of the o-rings on the compressor, and those two are very easy to swap.
yeh i guess that sounds like a plan.
Things are becoming clearer.
There was a small puddle of coolant on top of the water pump, in a small nook between the pump/front cover casting and the block. I assumed it had gotten stuck there when i changed the rad hose and coolant doesnt seem to dry out like normal water and can sometimes hang around for ages, so i had kinda discounted it. So earlier i dried it up to make sure, and also dried up the coolant mess on the underside, making sure it was all nice and dry.
Puddle: https://photos.app.goo.gl/gwMSxFKvf2CgNjv78
Got home, and a) the puddle is back, and b) the coolant drops are all back on the panhard rod and damper etc.
So i guess that means either the leak is at the front of the engine, and some of its just tracking rearwards with wind etc, or there are two leaks. One leak spreading around seems more plausible, but i cant figure out where its coming from.
The pump itself doesnt appear to be leaking, and for water to get up into that puddle, i think it suggests the gasket on the pump, or the gasket on the front cover is leaking? Theres also a lot of oil around the offside front of the engine which again might point to the front cover gasket (or at the very least a bad crank seal.
I will order a new cap, and then modify the old one to take a tyre valve as mentioned and see if i can actually pinpoint the leak on a cold engine.
Had another look at lunchtime. Really cant see anything around the water pump bearing itself, its just grubby with oil, no dampness.
Removed the round hatch from the gearbox bellhousing and had feel around inside, couldnt feel anything wet.
The panhard rod and steering damper had drops of coolant on it again, suggesting the leak is at the front. but the only drips on the ground were at the rear of the engine in the bellhousing area. I cant see any coolant on the actual engine at the front.
ran it up for 10minutes and had a good look around. No obvious leaks anywhere, and no additional drips on the ground either...
righty, so i swapped that dodgy T piece out last night. It was definitely the cause of the "river", i managed to visualise it leaking a few times and it was pissing out of there. Filled it up and had a 20 minute drive around, mixture of town and dual carriageway then back home. All seemed fine, no obvious leaks, no puddles of coolant on the ground.
Coolant level had dropped about an inch after the drive, but i figured that was probably just the air bleeding out of the hoses i'd changed etc. After being parked for a few minutes, i noticed there was a few drips appearing off the gearbox bellhousing. It didnt form a puddle, but engouh water dripped out that there was maybe a 6" damp patch on the ground. I wasnt sure at this point if it was a leak or not, as i'd blasted the underside of the car with the garden hose before my test drive to get rid of all the coolant drips.
This morning i filled it back up to the line (no pressure in the bottle when i opened it), and then drove to work. On arriving at work, again the level was down about an inch, maybe a wee bit more. And again, a small number of drips off the rear of the engine/bellhousing flange.
There doesnt appear to be anything leaking at the front of the engine that i can see (well, i lie, its pissing engine oil and ATF/PAS fluid everywhere, but not coolant!).
Rear Core plugs? ;(
it'll be like an engine mount. there will be two studs moulded into the bush, one poking out each side, but the only thing in between is rubber.
the diff damper thing is because the damper is held on with a rubber mount. If the rubber fails, the wire stops it vanishing out from under the car and thru someone elses windscreen.
if you know what signal it wants, just tap into the loom and give it grant for testing purposes. It'll likely either just apply ground or 12v to the wire for instance. I'm sure i recall that you can actually just connect the request line to the grant line and that works.
hmm i'm not sure it is leaking LPG, its just a shit plastic T piece that has got all distorted and isnt sealing properly against the new hose and fresh jubilee clip.
As it happens, the vaporiser itself IS leaking coolant though a very minor leak, and its on my list to replace. I didnt actually consider it could be mixing LPG and coolant though, maybe i need to bump that up the priority list a bit.
potentially, but the manifold looks dry and doesnt have much sign of any coolant. Theres a small puddle on top of the water pump, but i suspect thats made its way there from me changing the radiator top hose at the weekend. No signs of coolant anywhere near the actual water pump.
Rad is new and theres no signs of coolant on the rad itself.
Things get weirder though!
I parked it at work at half 9, and could see some drips off the gearbox bellhousing and rear of the engine block. They formed a small puddle (maybe a 6" diameter circle of wet) after being parked for about 2-3minutes.
Around 10 i went back to the car to fetch my coffee, the drips that were there previously had stopped and were clearly drying up on the concrete.
I decided i would go down to the car at lunch, start it up and have a good poke around looking for a leak. So around 1 i went out to the car, and found a massive puddle of coolant under it and stretching across the road. Opening the bonnet, there was a very obvious leak coming from the LPG T piece that i mentioned earlier. It was dripping off that, running along the edge of the rocker cover and then down the back of the engine and dripping off the starter motor.
So i topped it up with water (it took a kettle full) and then fired it up.... And the leaking T piece stopped leaking... WTF?
I've ordered a pair of new (metal) T's as well as some meters of 16mm hose for the LPG, so i guess i will change those out and see what happens :/
Seems to be one of those situations that the more i look, the more confused i get. I took some photos at lunch, i will see if i can post them.
And down the rabbit hole we go....
Swapped the dodgy looking coolant hose on sunday. Tried as best i could to not disturb the o-rings and filled it all back up.
Did a few miles around town and it seemed to use the whole expansion tank, but i figured that might just have been some air working its way out, so topped it up. No obvious damp carpet that one might expect for almost a litre of coolant having gone missing.
This morning it was about an inch down from the level so i filled it up again. looking underneath there was a few drips, which seemed to be directly underneath the heater hoses on the bulkhead. Had a feel about and the LPG T Piece was damp, so i tightened that up, refilled the coolant and set off to work (35miles).
Arrived at work and parked on an area of clean concrete and by the time i got out and looked underneath, there was already a puddle forming. Expansion tank was empty. Underneath the car there was active drops dipping off gearbox bellhousing. At the front, the steering bars and damper were also covered in drips of coolant.
Not convinced this is heater o-rings, theres no sign at all of leakage inside the car. Any ideas?
Try unplugging the MAF. It'll take two or three goes to start it without the MAF plugged in, but it should run fine once it starts.
I had an issue with mine doing the "belching black smoke and missfiring" and it was a bad MAF that was to blame.
Got a part number for the BMW one? Or a year/model/engine spec?
Also, you can easily tell the converter is unlocked by varying the load on the engine. Dont lift off completely, but if you cycle between say 20% and 60% throttle you will see (and hear) the revs rise and fall slightly if its unlocked.
If its locked the revs wont change.
It'll lock the converter on mine after shifting into 3rd as well.
3100 seems a bit of a weird speed though? i'm sure thats too low for third, but too high for 4th even with an unlocked converter?
From memory, mine sits around 2600rpm at 70 with the converter locked in 4th. With converter unlocked the rpms will be a little bit higher, maybe 2800.
70 in 3rd is up around 3500 with the converter locked.
The converter wont lock when its cold. Takes maybe 5-10 minutes of driving on a motorway on a cold day to get the converter to lock.
Perhaps the later cars with the smaller converter simply rev higher with it unlocked, and it was infact in 4th, but hadnt locked the converter due to being too cold?
My vaporiser has 10mm inlets which seems quite a restriction to the coolant flow so I think I will keep it parallel for now.
I guess I'll be very careful with the fittings and hope it doesn't start leaking!
Exactly the same location. The guy said something like "oh that's cracked on the blocks" which I guess is the same as what you've suggested.
He did say the screen was very old and is delaminating at the bottom, so it's probably original?
I've had a persistant coolant leak from the inlet manifold for a while. There was always a puddle of coolant underneath the big fitting on the right side of the manifold that feeds the heater matrix. I had actually assumed the threads were leaking (theres signs of PTFE tape).
Inspecting it closely earlier i noticed some slightly worrying signs, firstly, it think the hose looks noticable swollen. Its ~19mm at both ends, but it bulges out beside the inlet manifold in a rather unnatural manner, and replacement hoses on ebay look nothing like that, they appear to be 19mm all the way along. Secondly i think its leaking from the cords... I tightened the clip up but it continues to leak. I think the coolants actually seeping along the reinforcement cords and out the end, suggesting the inside of the hose is compromised. A disaster waiting to happen for sure!
The small complex that feeds the heater/expansion tank/thermostat, also has signs of pink coolant leaking from the joints, so i'll replace all of those, and i think actually i should just replace everything. The lower thermostat hoses are drenched in oily ming which also isnt good for rubber hoses, and the main top rad hose looks a wee bit "uneven" though not swollen to the extreme of that heater hose.
So that leads me to the question. The heater o-rings. They arent (obviously) leaking, but i believe removing the heater hoses runs the risk of disturbing them? I've noticed when inspecting the pipes earlier that the top heater pipe that pokes thru the bulkhead was covered in the usual tell-tale pink deposits, suggesting coolant is leaking either from the pipe or the o ring. Theres no obvious dampness inside though.
I dont really have time to sort the o-rings at the moment, but i'd like to get this clearly knackered coolant hose sorted out before it leaves me stranded... What are my chances!?
hmm! I've booked it during work hours, thinking i was being clever and getting it fixed when i'm otherwise busy!
Noticed the other day that my windscreen had cracked. The crack has appeared from the bottom edge, under the rubber seal and its working its way up and across.
I had booked autoglass for today, but unfortunately he turned up with a non-heated screen, so its now rebooked for next week.
However he did point out that it could be rust thats caused it... Something i hadnt even thought about.
Anyone know if the P38 tends to be susceptible to rust in/around the scuttle/windscreen area?