water loss

" Anyway she is reporting that the car is losing water again from inside"

If it`s losing water inside the car my first suspect would be the heater matrix and associated pipe work.

Some engines require that you retighten the head bolts a certain mileage after fitting- check the manual.

Thanks for you advice. When I meant losing it inside the car, I didnt mean noticeably, I should have meant inside the radiator more specifically. We are not aware of any leak from the interior.

Thanks Tony

It could be water dripping on the fanbelt.

Difficult to say what it is until you look at it. Hovere, some cars need the cylinder head bolts re-tensioning after x number of miles..worth reading the haynes book.

Very likely, yes. It's nothing serious.

Have a look under the car in the morning to see if there is a puddle. Also look for any steam or water jets while the engine is running. If it's coming from a hose, tighten the clip or replace a split hose. If it's coming from the radiator, tip one bottle, no more, of Radweld in when the engine's hot.

The head bolts should be tightened up to a specified torque, in a specified order. If you followed the Haynes manual, there's nothing to worry about here.

Look for a leak in this area too. It's better to refit these with new gaskets, but Radweld might solve things here.

This is very unlikely, but it could cause a split cylinder head. Look for oily deposits getting into the water.

My guess is that a thermostat/water pump gasket will solve things. If the leak is small it's sometimes reasonable to do nothing until it becomes big enough to see.

Thank you for replying and your advice.

She is saying its lost hardly any today even though she has been to work and back a few times- how could that be?

Hopefully this rules out head gasket, or not? (although Im not against simply testing to see if the torque settings need tensioning over).

I dont recall the Fiat haynes manual mentioning that it needs tensioning but so long as I dont break the bolts I might want to try at somehwat under the max torque anyway, if this is the ONLY thing left it could be.

I have a feeling that these Fiats are a nightmare with cooling system and head gaskets given what I have heard. I wish the problem wasnt so vague. Perhaps when I see it first hand it will be more obvious if its a steam/leak problem as opposed to a water consumption out the back end one.

I was also thinking of removing each spark plug to look for oilyness/deposits as I wasnt something I thought of the first time I had to do the HG.

Tony

Hi Tony,

Perhaps you had an airlock when filling the system after all of the work that you have done - this may have led to localised overheating and the loss of water.

Cheers, Mark

Perhaps there was some air trapped in the system that slowly escaped over a period of time? I have a Rover 'K' series engine and they are notorious for airlocks when refilling the cooling system. I can get most of the air out at refill and the coolant circulates properly but there is always some residual air left that finds it's way out over about a week/100 miles. Obviously, as this air escapes so the coolant level drops but it usually stabilises after a week.

Don't know about Fiat engines but could be a similar scenario?

HTH

Thought: It could be air trapped in the cooling system that is gradually making its way into the expansion bottle, making it *look* like water is being lost when the water wasn't there in the first place..

I'd top the cooling system up, and try to expel as much air as possible by squeezing the rubber pipes. Some cars have bleed screws on various heater pipes as well.

See if that cures the problem.

sPoNiX

Thanks all of you for all your advice.

Actually this was somewhat similar to the problem just after the rebuild, I only just recalled the trouble I had on installing fresh mixture of water/coolant antifreeze after the build.

BUT then I did what you have suggested then also , topped up, squeezed tubes, let idle and had the bleed screw let out - so I am little surprised it is doing that all over again. Then back in and it stabliised. Maybe it is like you say and we are just panicking for no reason, so I will make a point that she monitors it again more closely and we watch for water loss over a longer period in time before coming to the conclusion that a serious fault is imminent.

I must say, that much against my concerns that I might have done a bad job at that time (over a month ago) it was actually running really fine so I would be surprised the head has gone again. It was a bit crap to start initially at first at the time of refitting head but I had took a week to work on it, and this seems to be typical whenever doing head rebuilds, IME.

Cars, they are a pain in the arse. Or some models maybe more than others perhaps! My skoda has been a dream since new, aside from some very, very small niggles resolved by dealer.

Thanks Tony

Just like to say thanks for the suggestions, and I have finally got to see it first hand, and quite a relief to find that its just a little bit of a constant drip, coming from the water pump side.

On hols anyway, for a week lukily in my car. So I will bother to take a look when I get back, but just looks like a small job of removing the wheel, timing cover etc and I'll probably find its the hosing or the water pump mating face.

Thanks Tony