Technical Cinq Losing Water - help!!!

[tictac1cars]

I've got a 1995 cinq which runs fabulously but it uses lots of water. I am having to fill the water up every 2 days. Doesn't seem to be getting into the oil - no milky residue in oil - and no driving problems. No obvious leak / puddles under the car. Any ideas out there?

 

[fingers99]

Fill it up with water, remove DSwheel and arch liner and put it on axle stands. Startmotor and run it up to temperature and look. My guess is that it'll be the water pump.

 

[tictac1cars]

Thanks for that. One other thing I should have mentioned, the temp gauge on the car doesn't seem to move off 50degrees. I know it did in the past but the car is driven by my daughter - new driver - and she can't tell me when the gauge stopped moving. Don't know if this is related.

 

[arseofbox]

Is the cooling system working under the right pressure and/or is there blowby gases in the cooling system?

Our new acquisition was doing that - Ive just ripped the head off and the head gasket was NFG.

 

[fingers99]

A compression test should tell you if the HG is OK or not. You could also have a pressure test of the cooling system and pressure cap done.

Lots of things could account for the 50 degree max, but you should rule out water leaks and the HG first.

 

[arseofbox]

A compression test should tell you if the HG is OK or not. You could also have a pressure test of the cooling system and pressure cap done

Wouldnt that only apply if the HG has failed between a fire ring and something?

....bearing in mind that its possible for a HG to fail purely between an oilway and a waterway.

 

[fingers99]

Wouldnt that only apply if the HG has failed between a fire ring and something?

....bearing in mind that its possible for a HG to fail purely between an oilway and a waterway.

In theory. In practice, if there's enough oil pressure (let alone water pressure) to break through the gasket the HG is the very least of your problems. Can happen with sloppy assembly, but at that level of sloppyness you'd expect the fire ring to fail, too.

The pressurise yer coolant test will pick that up, but also show water leaks on a cold engine. If you do it with the engine running it'll show a gasket blown from fire ring into a waterway, too.