Was checking all the levels today and found to my great surprise that there was bu*ger all left in my coolant expansion tank! Now it's not that it's happened recently either, as where water has been sat there before it had stained the tank so it always looked like it was just below the max line. Luckily today I took the top off the expansion tank to see that there was hardly any left in the tank and then to find that it was PURE water - no antifreeze what so ever!

A quick call to Fiat revealed that I didn't need to use Distilled water (didn't think I did but it was nice to check just in case) and that any good brand antifreeze would do - but I've decided to go for the stuff that's listed in the Owners Manual. I've also decided that to get it right I'm going to drain the system, flush it out, and re-fill it with the correct mix of anti-freeze and water (the guy at Fiat said 30% anti-freeze was fine even though the book states a 50-50 mix). Just topping it up now would be ok, but I'd rather make sure that it's done properly so as not to have any problems in the future.

SNAP!

Ok not realy but Mrs_G's Cargo has started to loose coolant, not much - about a pint a week but still signs of a problem.

I've been monitoring the problem and it seems to loose more during the recent cold snaps we've been having - the level drops far more than would be accounted for by contraction of the coolant due to the lower temperatures.

My local independant garage have had a look and there are no obvious signs but chief suspect is the water pump - still the original at 213,000 miles.

The van goes in to the garage on Wednesday for a service and cambelt change. They will fit a new water pump then as a precaution.

I've also just remembered another thing about the coolant loss. In both cases when the level dropped significantly the van was parked facing down hill on part of our drive that has a drop of about 1 in 4 (ie. flippin steep). I don't know if its a contributing factor or not.

I'll LYKHIGO after the service.

Goodluck with your incontinence problem Ozzie :devil: :devil: :devil:

Intresting Niall, now why haven't you made a thread about that already to yourself lol! Only joking, I think mines been down for ages, and all I've been seeing is the stain on the tank (you can't see a bloody thing through it) rather than the actual water level. Will have the anti-freeze by the end of the week, then the bottom hose will be coming off to drain it, try to clean the inside of the tank, fill it back up, drain it again to flush it, and then a 1/3 anti-freeze/water mix will be going in.

I'll keep you updated if it does drop again, although since it hasn't had any anti-freeze in it it wouldn't surprise me if during the summer when I was stuck in traffic that most of that didn't boil away due to the lack of anti-boil resistance given by anti-freeze.

Okey dokey then, I now have 3 litres of proper Fiat anti-freeze! Only trouble is as I was about to drain the system the heavens opened and we have some pretty bad weather in store. Then I realised I had to take the underguard off so doing it in the rain is out of the question

Anyone done this before? Is there anywhere I need to bleed the system or shall I just let the expansion tank do the honours

Hi Ozzie, if you are losing coolant, I'm abosolutley convinced your water pump is on its way out. The problem with that is, if the bearing goes it can cause the cambelt to snap - and we all know the outcome of that.
There was a guy on here with a ulysess taxi and the same thing happened, I've switched my fiats now to the 1.3 mulitjet chain driven.
fiat panda, daughter fiat punto wife and a new doblo in feb.
How many miles has your doblo done ?
If its anything over 70 k, then you should certainly suspect the water pump.

bobian81 said:

Hi Ozzie, if you are losing coolant, I'm abosolutley convinced your water pump is on its way out. The problem with that is, if the bearing goes it can cause the cambelt to snap -
.
.
.
If its anything over 70 k, then you should certainly suspect the water pump.

Click to expand...

Sound advice indeed. :yeahthat:

When the garage replaced Mrs_G's cambelt last week they also replaced the water pump as it was the original (213,000 miles). The bearing was definatley on its way and felt rough when turned by hand (after removal from the engine).

I don't know of an easy way to check this as it forms part of the cambelt run - perhaps someoneelse has a suggestion?

If you've still got any comeback on your supplying dealer it might be worth mentioning it to them now (In writing) just in case the worst happens in the near future.

LUKHYGO Ozmeister !

Nial, you've hit the nail on the head ! modern car makers tend to drive everything BUT the kitchen sink off the cambelt, in my book the cambelt should drive exactly that CAM only, that way if you get say a water pump failure it doesnt knack the engine, this is why i'm in the process of changing our fiats to the multijet, the cam is CHAIN driven, much more sensible, I'm told the chains should be good for 160k +

I appreciate your comments, but at 25,000 miles I can't see my water pump being on it's way out? I'll inspect it when I change the coolant though, but I haven't had any more leakage since my last post still waiting for a dry day to do it.

I will mention it to the dealer though Niall when I get them to do me a pre-warranty-run-out inspection/service after Christmas sometime so if anything is wrong I'll get as much done as possible under warranty.

Check for water inside, heater matrix may be leaking