Possible dreaded HGF?!!

[BenH]

Hi Folks,

I've just noticed that the coolant level has dropped by a couple of cm - I always keep it topped up to the max mark on the expansion tank.

Now I've not done many journeys at all over the last 6 weeks or so apart from a couple of 5 mile round trips a week to the shops. (walk to work, easy peasy)

I met my mate from Heathrow yesterday, which was a 220 mile M4 journey. Car running beautifully, temperature completely normal, purring along.

And this morning the level has dropped as I mentioned earlier.

I can't tell if it's leaking coolant from elsewhere though as the ground is all wet anyway at the mo!

There's no sludge whatsoever under the oil filler cap or on the dipstick, and the cars only got 37,000 miles on it.

Any advice please?!

Cheers,
Ben

[soberphil]

Look for any residue around coolant hoses and all parts of the radiator itself - this could indicate where liquid is escaping - I suspect I have a slight leak from my rad, though it seems to have stopped in the last couple of days. Had intended to replace rad but ended up with the wrong part, will get hold of the right one and drop a new one in soon, don't want to risk overheating! Meanwhile I'm religiously checking the coolant level and watching the temp gauge!

On a previous k series engined car I had a leak develop from the water pump, try having a look at that, can't remember off the top of my head how easy it is to view it.

On a similar cooling type note - at MOT time last week it became evident that my fan wasn't working - couldn't do emisions tests without the temp gauge starting to climb as fan wasn't kicking in so MOT man abandoned the test. (am hoping that the temp getting up a bit hasn't caused any long term HGF issues!).

I traced the fan issue to a blown fuse which I replaced and then sailed through the test, but presumably the fuse went for a reason - any ideas?

Cheers,
Phil.

[tommyk]

Go to halford and get some radseal. I had a minor leak a few months ago, the first bottle of radseal pretty much sorted it, then i put in a second and have had no more problems!

[BenH]

Thanks v much for the replies, that's cheered me up! I'll do a compression test next weekend as well, hopefully this will be good too....

Cheers,
Ben

[mafcaw]

A word of warning, be very carefull with products like a radseal in a K Series engine, radseal can block/ sludge up the waterways which leads to unequal engine cooling (generates hot spots) which in turn will goose the entire engine.

Reading mg-rover.org the guru's advise to get to the bottom of the problem quickly instead of trying to bodge it. Remember once you start overheating it HGF is a lot more likely.

I would start with the radiator & water pump first as I've had both go on previous rovers (water pump on a 17k 3 year old 200). Radiators seam to be very common looking at other members comments here.

[tommyk]

A word of warning, be very carefull with products like a radseal in a K Series engine, radseal can block/ sludge up the waterways which leads to unequal engine cooling (generates hot spots) which in turn will goose the entire engine.

Reading mg-rover.org the guru's advise to get to the bottom of the problem quickly instead of trying to bodge it. Remember once you start overheating it HGF is a lot more likely.

I would start with the radiator & water pump first as I've had both go on previous rovers (water pump on a 17k 3 year old 200). Radiators seam to be very common looking at other members comments here.

oops!! :S