I have just arrived in Paris in my x1/9 (1989 gran finale 12k) and am putting it on the train tomorrow to briancon near the Italian border then driving down to Tuscany.
Left London this morning, drove to Dover and on towards Paris with no problems. Then, as I was queuing to pay for the autoroute just outside paris, my temp gauge started rising and went right up into the red..nearly got to 130 but luckily was then able to drive off and temp went down to 90 or just above. Then I hit traffic and temp started rising again. I pulled over to the hard shoulder and turned the engine off, let things cool down and checked the coolant level. Coolant was boiling and low so put in half a litre of fresh coolant and half a litre of water which I had in the car. (I also checked the fan fuse which was intact). I got off the motorway as soon as I could and stopped at a bar to buy water. It took another 3 litres to fill the reservoir so in fact I had nearly been running on empty..no wonder it had overheated. Incidentally I had checked levels before I left London. I then made my way to my hotel in Paris and everything seemed to be back to normal...fan cutting in ok and I checked under the car...no leaks anywhere..
I cannot fathom how I lost four litres of coolant with no apparent leak and no overheating whilst driving on the motorway. Any ideas as to what has happened as I would obviously like to get any problems sorted prior to driving in hot temperatures in Italy. :bang:

First thing is to check the oil for coolant. If nothing there start the car from cold and see if its steamy out the exhaust. If all is ok then check the header tank for run marks, mine cracked in the middle. Chances are that its leaking on a joint under the car. mine used to loose water because a rubber hose swelled under pressure but then when you shut the car off it would stop leaking. I would tighten all the jubilee clips as well. Hope it helps.

Right...have had a look this morning and have spotted where the leak is. Took a photo but can't figure out how to upload it on my girlfriends iPad. There is a small telltale pool of water in the recess of the bolt which goes into the engine block (sorry but have to explain in laymans terms!) Looking at engine from rear it is the second bolt to the right from the yellow cam belt cover, just behind the carb. The rest of the engine is dry and there doesn't seem to be any water in the oil. Am I right in thinking that the water is escaping under pressure whilst driving hard from where this bolt is screwed in rather than a blown gasket? also is it safe to drive and keep topping up until I can get it seen to? Can email the photo if anyone needs to take a look...thanks

Sorry, last post should have read 'it's the second bolt to the left of the cambelt cover' and not to the right

If you've still got the autochoke connected, it sounds like its leaking from there. Whip the pipes off to the feed and return and clean where they push on, then use two new jubilee clips. also check the coverplate on the autochoke isn't leaking, you might need to slop some silicone around it.
Forgot to say, you should be ok to keep topping it up but check the condition of the pipework for cracks. Don't want the pipe going pop on the motorway.

Forgot the water was connected to the auto choke...leak is in that area so sounds like you may be right..hope so...will take a look in the morning when I'm reunited with my car. I dropped it off this morning at the autotrain and am traveling independently to it on the TGV.
Thanks for your invaluable help Phil..will keep you updated..cheers mate..

No worries mate. All for one and one for all

Sorry I didn't get to read your post yesterday - looks like you might already have the right answer though. I don't think you're losing water from the block or cylinder head itself, you'd really know about it by now if it were the case but you need to be very wary of the fact the engine is getting hot.

Worst case with the autochoke, just loop the pipe and bypass the choke completely. Not ideal but better than losing all that water. With only a small leak you can lose an incredible amount once it gets to a critical temperature and pressure. You might have a bit of trouble getting it to start of course but at least it isn't the middle of winter

Thanks guys..my car arrives in Briancon in a couple of hours time..will have a look and hopefully will be able to bodge it. Thanks for the tip Jimbro..was wondering whether I could just disconnect the autochoke and loop the pipes...will let you know how it goes...

Hi again guys...well had a look this morning and it's not leaking from the auto choke..it's dry as a bone. Drove it 20 miles over 2 mountain passes to sestriere with no problems. Took it easy although it did get quite warm..as one would expect it to, but fan cutting in ok.
Anyway, took it to a local mechanic here in town. They didn't have much idea..they put the water under pressure from the header tank to see if they could spot a leak but to no avail. One of them suggested it was coming from the oil breather pipe (a few drops did come out as we were watching it with engine running) but I think he was clutching at straws...water not landing under oil breather in any case.
I suspect it to be a tiny leak from head gasket near the aforementioned bolt where the water collects..and only when driven hard for some time...
bit of a mystery..any more ideas??? Thanks

I think if it was the head gasket it would have started to bubble at that head bolt and you'd have seen it. if the leaky bolt and autochoke is a red herring. The overheating could be that the coolant leaked from lower down. Have you rebled the radiator?

Ignore the water coming from the crankcase breather, I have an oil catch can on mine and I empty 500ml of water every month.

Just keep an eye on the waterlevel and if it drops again have a really good look round to see anything?

Forgot to say, you jammy, lucky, jammy, lucky bastard! How's she doing around the passes? I'm driving mine to Milan next year....

Would strongly advise you to check the thermostat. The leak may well be the reason for the coolant loss but some should still make it round the system. If the thermostat has failed it will bring the pressure up making the leak worse so even fixing it won't solve the overheating problem. Very easy to check the thermostat is working. When the car is hot both main pipes into the radiator should be hot too. If not, the thermostat is closed and has failed.

Well, left Sestriere Friday morning and was planning to stop in Turin to take car to a garage and sort out the problems. But car *seemed* to be running ok (leak wasnt so bad) so decided (foolishly) to try and carry on to Tuscany some 250 miles away thinking it would be ok if I kept the speed down..got as far as Genoa when car started stuttering..figured it was running on 3 cylinders as water had got into one of them..got off the motorway quickly and asked around for a garage that was open. A very friendly bar owner phoned his mechanic mate who promptly arrived on his scooter (what else!)..he confirmed I had a blown gasket and I followed him to his garage..old skool mechanic with a pretty impressive garage in the backstreets of Genoa..says he worked on lots of exxies in past years and really seemed to know his stuff. He is going to replace head gasket, re skim head and replace cambelt while he's at it..was lucky to find him as its bank holiday week in Italy and everything is shut til Monday. I carried on my holiday in a rented Panda organised and paid for by breakdown insurance..Hopefully drive back up to Genoa to pick up my exxie on wednesday..
The worst bit?? Driving on empty, twisting, undulating Tuscan roads in blazing sunshine in a poxy Panda instead of topless in the exxie..it's doing my head in!! Still once I pick it up I'll still have 3 days to blast it...
Thanks for all your help guys...

Finally picked up car yesterday..400 mile round trip...new head gasket fitted as well as cam belt and other usual ancillaries. At least I have a couple of days to enjoy it before returning home..engine gets pretty hot in temperatures of 35 degrees although it copes..the mechanic suggested that the CSC 4 into 1 exhaust, although a nice piece of kit, produces an awful lot of heat and is perhaps less than ideal in a car already prone to getting warm...its also bloody noisy in the cabin (other people who have it fitted have also complained of the noise). Starting to wish I only had the standard CSC box fitted.

I put thermal wrap on my CSC manifold to help keep the heat out of the engine bay - it was very effective but there were two problems. 1) The nice UHT black paint on the silencer quickly burned off leaving a fairly nasty looking patch of white "ash" on the box; and 2) the wrap retains water so once the manifold gets wet it quickly rots the manifold out so it didn't last very long, just a couple of years...

Final chapter to my saga...Just picked up my car from DTR in South Coulsden. Had the head bolts re torqued after having had the head gasket changed in Italy. They reported that the idle jet was partially blocked which was causing my car to run very lean and therefore very hot...this is why the head gasket failed especially as I had been gunning it for long periods of time at high speed on European motorways. They also reported that the Italian mechanic seems to have done a good job replacing the head gasket but maybe should have tuned the car afterwards and should really have spotted the blocked idle jet. Also had a new speedo cable fitted as old one sheared off at gearbox end...turned out to be a expensive holiday!! At least my car is spot on now....