cgarr04
New member
Hi folks,
My trusty Punto is losing coolant and has been for a few months now, as you probably already know (Whitesei, Ziggy).
It's a 1.2 8v, 91,000k on it. It's done 11k in just over 7 months and i've probably done 5-6k WITH a coolant leak, topping it up on a weekly basis ofcourse.
It drives fine and has done for the last 7 months without breakdown, overheating etc, which makes me think that it is not the HG. I will also add that there is no obvious signs of HG failure such as performance problems, white smoke, oil in coolant, coolant in oil, mayo etc.
I tried some radweld in it a few months back and it did appear to slow down the leak. I flushed radweld after a little while and the problem appears worse than before and seems to be progressivly getting worse over time, which is obvious beahviour of corrosion? We had snow yesterday so i'm eager to get this sorted as antifreeze almost becomes as expensive as petrol this time of year at the rate the car is using it...
Anyway, few questions:
1:- If the HG had indeed gone, would I be able to do this sort of milage without issue, providing i topped up the coolant regularly (1/2 litre / weekly)?
2:- I would like to give the car a good once over for any leaks, as there are no obvious leaks. Would anyone be kind enough to list known/common leak points for these cars, perferably with pictures?
3:- The gurgling sound is always present when accelerating in 1st/2nd from a cold start, but will stop away when the engine is about 1/4 of temp. Surely this is another symptom of a leak? I have bled the car as many times as i've took my other half out for dinner. I think that's enough said on that subject.
4:- Oil conumption:- The car uses quite abit of oil, hard to estimate...but using 10/40 castrol stuff, it probably does about 1000-1200 miles/litre. I know the rocker cover is needing replaced as the engine is covered in oil, but it doesn't leak on the ground. Would it be worth spending the money on the rocker cover and how much oil would this save roughly?
Hope that's not to hard on the eyes, thanks folks
My trusty Punto is losing coolant and has been for a few months now, as you probably already know (Whitesei, Ziggy).
It's a 1.2 8v, 91,000k on it. It's done 11k in just over 7 months and i've probably done 5-6k WITH a coolant leak, topping it up on a weekly basis ofcourse.
It drives fine and has done for the last 7 months without breakdown, overheating etc, which makes me think that it is not the HG. I will also add that there is no obvious signs of HG failure such as performance problems, white smoke, oil in coolant, coolant in oil, mayo etc.
I tried some radweld in it a few months back and it did appear to slow down the leak. I flushed radweld after a little while and the problem appears worse than before and seems to be progressivly getting worse over time, which is obvious beahviour of corrosion? We had snow yesterday so i'm eager to get this sorted as antifreeze almost becomes as expensive as petrol this time of year at the rate the car is using it...
Anyway, few questions:
1:- If the HG had indeed gone, would I be able to do this sort of milage without issue, providing i topped up the coolant regularly (1/2 litre / weekly)?
2:- I would like to give the car a good once over for any leaks, as there are no obvious leaks. Would anyone be kind enough to list known/common leak points for these cars, perferably with pictures?
3:- The gurgling sound is always present when accelerating in 1st/2nd from a cold start, but will stop away when the engine is about 1/4 of temp. Surely this is another symptom of a leak? I have bled the car as many times as i've took my other half out for dinner. I think that's enough said on that subject.
4:- Oil conumption:- The car uses quite abit of oil, hard to estimate...but using 10/40 castrol stuff, it probably does about 1000-1200 miles/litre. I know the rocker cover is needing replaced as the engine is covered in oil, but it doesn't leak on the ground. Would it be worth spending the money on the rocker cover and how much oil would this save roughly?
Hope that's not to hard on the eyes, thanks folks