Annoying little coolant leak

Post by **Charles** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 1:48 pm

I've been struggling with a loss of about 250ml of coolant every couple of days for a little while now and have been dealing with it by topping up at Â£10 a bottle of coolant (diluted to 50%) as this seemed far cheaper than paying someone to inspect the system.

Happened to be near Amersham on Friday so popped into CPC and Phil found the problem almost immediately - a hairline crack at the top of the radiator near the expansion tank.

Given that this was the original radiator from 10 years and 227k miles ago, it's lasted well, but it needed to be changed

We also changed the expansion tank whilst we were there for good measure - the first one lasted about 120k miles, so we reckoned the incumbent was due a change before it split.

Job done and coolant levels appear to be constant so, hopefully, that's the end of it for a while

jamesa · Post by **jamesa** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 4:40 pm

Good news then Charles, another step towards immortality

Post by **Charles** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 6:08 pm

jamesa wrote:Good news then Charles, another step towards immortality

Not sure about immortality but I reckon we are getting close to having changed everything that could be changed

jamesa · Post by **jamesa** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 7:04 pm

... hope that you haven`t retained the receipts then (doubt it somehow)

drewjak · Post by **drewjak** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 10:19 pm

Done well there Charles as i think the rads and the header tanks are a weak spot on the e46 aren't they?

Just proves that regular maintenance helps prolong the life of components

Post by **Charles** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 11:42 pm

jamesa wrote:... hope that you haven`t retained the receipts then (doubt it somehow)

You should see the size of the folder

Interestingly though, the spreadsheet allows me to see how much the car has cost me per mile. Including fuel, depreciation, insurance, roadtax and all the various repairs and maintenance items, I still cannot believe that my car has cost less than 50p/mile over its lifetime which, in my book, is excellent news

rcshott · Post by **rcshott** » Thu Aug 01, 2013 10:31 pm

That's NAUGHTY Charles.... with a car like that.... well, ANY car really, a problem like that has the potential.... well... you know!
Tut, tut & investigate!!!

ASAP

Post by **Charles** » Fri Aug 02, 2013 3:08 pm

rcshott wrote:That's NAUGHTY Charles.... with a car like that.... well, ANY car really, a problem like that has the potential.... well... you know!
Tut, tut & investigate!!! ASAP

That's exactly what I've done, Jim - hence this post