Coolant issue
 

Morning People

Took my 75 CDT for a routine coolant change today. suspected nothing. They called me after an hour to inform me there is very little water in the car.

I am shocked no visual sign that i was loosing any. ie message centre nothing nothing on the floor. He said when i started it the rad fan kicked in at once i said no that is the air con fan as i had the whole thing rebuilt last year.

i am worried now anybody come across this before the car has done 216,00.

hoping its just a hose.

Keep safe

Chris

Never seen a diesel but pretty sure it has the same cooling system as the others - radiator fan / AC fan is the same thing.

On any other engine the lack of water could be disastrous but the diesels are said to be cooler running. Now just a matter of finding the leak ...

Regards

I have had a small leak on my diesel, I could never find it but I could smell it, it turned out the be leaking by the lower bolt fitting on the thermostat housing, the bolt was tight and so the thermostat had to come off, I fitted a new thermostat housing then ran the car up to temperature and the radiator started leaking between the fins .. it never rains does it?
There was a small tell tale dark patch on the rad for a while but I could never see it leak.
New rad came this morning but its raining so I will wait until tomorrow or whenever, luckily I already had the bumper off and the headlights out to do some work on them.

Currently not in love with my ZT! :mad:

my only leak issue with the diesel was the rail pipe that goes into the thermostat housing. Has an O ring, pig of a job and better to do the water pump at the same time as it gets in the way of the pipe repair.

I had similar with my rad, except the only evidence was wisps of steam on damp/humid days.

Make sure you've got a soldering iron handy when you go take the front off to cut the fan shroud around the aircon pipes, and to cut the power steering /oil cooler (can't remember which it was) fixing nut off.
Whoever thought sticking a brass nut on a steel bolt right where it gets covered in salt, with no room to get a spanner of any sort on the nut should be shot!

coolant update
 

Well guys i took her out the garage filled the tank to the markers. Left over night.

Very little water loss. However i did see some water on the lip of the expansion tank. I am now thinking the cap is shot.

If it is thats a cheap fix i know some people have had a issue with them.

Coolant Level Header Tank
 

HI Chris
When they say very little water what do they mean by that, how many litres have they drained off, did they take out the engine drain plug or just removed the bottom hose?
https://i.imgur.com/pvCdIGCl.jpg1

https://i.imgur.com/FNwNhjBl.jpg2

Check the top hose connection from the radiator where it enters the cylinder head.

And also the upper coolant rail pipe where it enters the thermostat housing........guess what I'm replacing on the old man's car soon :getmecoat:

another thought, that caught me out. Was the cap tightened fully? I felt I was overtightening the cap, so put it on hand tight, and then a little further (still by hand). It was only 4 days later I could smell that fearful smell of hot coolant, walking past the car. The level had dropped enough to empty the expansion tank over the four days! (that would be roughly 80 miles). No obvious signs of leakage either.

Refilled, bled to be sure and tightened until it reached the stop (still by hand but with more effort). All was good after. I still replaced the cap, even though it was only about 2 years old anyway.