Hi

I've a 99 plate sei 1.1 suite and I'm a need some advice please.

Have been going through an awful lot of coolant lately and had convinced myself that I had a HG failure despite car driving fine and missing some symptoms.

The car starts first time and drives fine, there is no white smoke, no overheating, sump oil is ok and level is fine, there was a bit of mayo in the breather pipes and oil filler cap but to be honest thats always been an annual cleaning job. I haven't been able to find a noticeable leak and there's been no puddles under the car. I drive about 10 miles to work and have been losing approx 1 litre of coolant each journey and for the last week have been topping up before each journey.

I resigned myself to replacing the car. On the way home tonight I heard a popping noise from under the bonnet and pulled over. The hose going to the thermostat had a 2 inch split in it underneath and there was coolant everywhere. What I was wondering is could the hose have been the problem all along or is it more likely to have been caused by something else.

Sorry for the length of the post, but I'm confused more than usual.

Possible, but more likely either a leak from the water pump or the water pump O ring. You can often only see these leaks when the car is running and up to temperature and if you climb underneath.

The only way to be sure if you have a HG failure is -- how many times -- to do a compression test. It's cheap, easy, and tells no lies.

It's plain daft to think of replacing a car because the HG has gone, but especially when the car is as easy to work on as a Sei. An 8 year old could do it, (although they'd probably struggle torquing up the head bolts.)

Thanks for the quick reply.

I had taken the cam covers and wheel arch liner off looking for a pump leak and had also had as best a look at the the o ring from underneath with engine running at temp has i could but could see no obvious signs of a leak bearing in mind the volume involved.

To be honest I'm being lazy with regard to replacing the HG bearing in mind the time to do, getting the head skimmed and the cost of a gasket kit for a car that probably worth at most £300

About £100 quid for parts and skimming. £80 tops for scrap.

Where else are you going to get a working car for £100 and a weekend's work?

I get the argument over cost and by no means am I rolling in money but at the end of the day I could be spending £100+ and a weekend weather permitting and still not solve the problem if not the HG (compression test is good advice that I hadn't considered as car running fine ).

Compression test about £15 at a back street garage or about the same for the kit, posted, on eBay.

Fingers99

I do appreciate your advice I'm trully sorry if it appears otherwise. Compression test had not entered my head( I'll do myself next) as car was driving fine no loss of power acceleration etc and if I hadn't noticed the constant water loss I wouldn't have been worried in the slightest. To be honest I would have been happier if I had found a big puddle under the car or a misfire.














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