Coolant Leak Help/Advice

Chong

Hello All,

I am driving from Dublin to Limerick tonight, as I need to get a car down to Limerick as I am scrapping it. However I have been suffering a coolant leak for a week or so , now I know it shouldnt be driven but I cant afford towing it down. Is there any advice or help anyone can give me, it originally overheated 2 weeks so I have been keeping the coolant topped up with water as advised by my mechanic, I havent repaired it as its being scrapped, but the water leaks out regularly.

Cheers all

fasttalkerchat

Chong wrote: »

Hello All,

I am driving from Dublin to Limerick tonight, as I need to get a car down to Limerick as I am scrapping it. However I have been suffering a coolant leak for a week or so , now I know it shouldnt be driven but I cant afford towing it down. Is there any advice or help anyone can give me, it originally overheated 2 weeks so I have been keeping the coolant topped up with water as advised by my mechanic, I havent repaired it as its being scrapped, but the water leaks out regularly.

Cheers all

I drove a 1.2 clio for 3 miles with zero coolant after an accident.
If you stop every 10-20 mins to check and topup the coolant it should be fine.

Write down a recovery number incase it dies halfway down the road.

Chong

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

I drove a 1.2 clio for 3 miles with zero coolant after an accident.
If you stop every 10-20 mins to check and topup the coolant it should be fine.

Write down a recovery number incase it dies halfway down the road.

I will bring with me plenty of water and pray it stays in one piece.

My mechanic has said to me as long as I keep it topped up it should be ok for the journey down.

Have it topped up before you leave and have plenty of water in the car, airflow might keep in cool enough while you are moving if the head isn't gone. Be careful toppin it up when hot, leave it cool for 10 to 20 mins before opening the cap after stopping

Man of Aran

Another tip to keep temp gauge sitting in 'normal', if she tries to overheat, is turn on full heating, blower speed medium to high with windows down - better you feel stuffy and hot than engine hot , eh! It effectively acts like a 2nd or parallel radiator.
Remember it helped me get a Micra from London to Galway via Holyhead one Xmas many years back. It had issue with DC radiator fan motor - if your's has water leaks you still gotta stop and top that up as other posters said. Caution on opening steaming rad cap as advised.

Plug

If its really pissing out it may over heat because the coolant can't pressurize and will start to boil.

Nissan doctor

Got there before me. The pressure in the cooling system stops the water from boiling at the normal 100 degree's.

With a leak, you have no pressure, therefore a lower boiling point and most cars normal operating temp is 80-100 degree's anyway. You may just get away with it if you keep moving. The advice about keeping the heater on full blast is sound too, as this is taking heat away from the engine.

Chong

Cheers all Lads I SURVIVED!

I made sure to top up the Coolant before I left and made 5 x 10 min pit stops along the way driving at 80km/h all the way. I decided to take the old road n7 also as its easier to stop off.

So each time I checked the coolant it didnt move the whole way so it must be a slow leak. I made it home safely thankfully.

Thanks for all the advice lads, hopefully I can put this car behind me for good tomorrow.