General coolant leak in cab

[jormez]

Evening all,

What a great idea, a forum just for Ducato's so i'm hoping some one will be able to help. I have a 2.8 non turbo, 2000 W reg.
I spent the day fitting central locking to my van and before i started i noticed a small pool of coolant about the size of a 10 pence piece on the floor in the passenger footwell, i wiped it up and carried on working for now. About an hour later no leak, started the engine to turn the van around, engine was running for about 3 or 4 minutes then turned the engine off, still no leak, about an hour later there was a pool about 2" across.

The manual i've got, the peter russek one is useless, it doesn't cover the internal heating side of things, i was just wondering if anyone has had the same/similar problem or has ever taken it all apart and where to start to find where the leak is coming from.

Cheers for now.

 

[dave]

sounds like a heater matrix leak

 

[jormez]

Hmm, how easy is this to get to and is there any manuals that cover taking it all apart?

 

[dave]

not to sure on that model, most fiats its a dash out job, best wait a few days see if any of the van boys reply

 

[T14086]

Dash out...done loads of them.

 

[Boki]

Are you sure that is pool of coolant? Maybe it leaking from outside of van...

 

[jormez]

Are you sure that is pool of coolant? Maybe it leaking from outside of van...

Yeah definately coolant, its luminous green just like in the header tank.

Does the whole dash need to come out or just the lower half?

 

[Boki]

Sy, I really don't know for Ducato like your's. I have Ducato earlyer year's. I don't want to say something wrong to you.

 

[5461todd]

just had my leak done. Whole dashboard out job, new heater matrix fitted whole job under £800. Fiat wanted over £2000... total time about 12hrs to repair, so not that dear really. Used a small fiat/ford specialist in Andover.

 

[Old-Boy racer]

I've said this on a similar question for the older models but, if you thinks it's a heater matrix leak which it sounds like, try putting Radweld in the system first. It works wonders for small leaks if you follow the instructions and could save a huge amount of work and/or expense.

 

[whitevanmen]

Hi,i had the same problem with a leaky matrix,i tried radweld and it worked a treat.That was 2 years ago and i've not seen a drop of water on the floor since then.Easy fix that worked for me!

 

[Old-Boy racer]

Hi,i had the same problem with a leaky matrix,i tried radweld and it worked a treat.That was 2 years ago and i've not seen a drop of water on the floor since then.Easy fix that worked for me!

And a lot cheaper than 12 hours of anybodies time......

 

[stevenadamstek]

hi all i have a o5 fiat ducato 2.3turbo i have a problem there is coolant in the front cab its being coming in now 2 to 3 weeks a little more each day i have read that its a dash strip out also i have read that radweld might work if i am using radweld do i just put it into the coolant holder or somewhere else thank you if any one can help me

 

[LNZ]

hi all i have a o5 fiat ducato 2.3turbo i have a problem there is coolant in the front cab its being coming in now 2 to 3 weeks a little more each day i have read that its a dash strip out also i have read that radweld might work if i am using radweld do i just put it into the coolant holder or somewhere else thank you if any one can help me

just put the radweld into the coolant header tank and run the engine to circulate it round the system.

 

[T14086]

dont know where these £800-£2000 quotes come from?

5 hours labour + parts is reasonable.

 

[5461todd]

i had main dealer quote £2000 plus vat. got it done by Ford agent in Andover £250 plus Vat. Had other quotes in excess of £600. So £250 plus vat good price. I have had 2 done in 3yrs and 160.000 miles hard motoring. Leaking a few weeks back, radweld no good but used a trade type and put in three bottles. it has so far stopped fingers crossed.