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MG MGF Technical - loss of water

Head gasket replaced 1000 miles ago. Noticed water loss, having to put litre of water every morning to travel 20 miles. When engine is hot there is no obvious sign of leak to boot side of engine.When I check the water when cold,there is an obvious sign of water leaking.Seems to bve leaking out overnight whilst parked.Car is not overheating,running fine . No sign of water in oil.Can anyone help. thanks
Kate Green

Sorry forgot to say the car is an MGF 2001. Thanks.
Kate Green

I've just sorted a similar problem on the missus' 2001 MGF. Her return journey to work is about 15 miles, and we'd have to check the coolant every day as it would loose about 1cm for this.

No contamination, no overheating (although it would if we hadn't kept it topped up). In the end I found the radiator was rusted and holed enough to loose fluid at pressure. I got a new rad from a recommendation on here for about £70 delivered and it hasn't lost any since.

Make sure you mix the correct ratio of water to coolant though as its also a rust inhibitor. If you think it is leaking overnight, can you not see a puddle in the morning as a litre is a lot?

Ours was leaking the worst when the cooling fan kicked in.

Hope this helps.
D Forber

In the morning, take a look underneath to see if you can identify where the coolant is leaking from. The front end and middle sections are quite easy to check, but underneath the engine can be more tricky. It might be something as simple as a loose hose clip.
Chris
Chris

Alternatively, you might have what mine has. Seems to leak when hot and cooling not when cold. After driving car, leave it for an hour, go back to car and reverse a couple of feet, and have a look where you were parked. See if you can see any obvious signs of a leak. Might just be a loose hose if HG was done recently.

Get it fixed though, and I would suspect most would also recommend re-bleading the system?
Leigh

I have noticed the same with mine after just having teh head gasket done, daily comute is around 35 miles and was using about 500ml a day initially. this has dropped to around 100ml or less gradually over the three week period. I have obviously been monitoring this. The cart is running fine, just the littl leak somewhere which I can't find. I also suspect it is something like a minute pin hole leak somewhere, maybe a flexi hose or radiator. The car is 7 year old now although I have only had it for 3 I suspect these items have never been replaced yet.
Nkosi_Ecosse

Kate,

Ibought my MGF in 2000, and had a similar problem to yours last year. I ended up replacing the radiator and the coolant pipe and have had no problems since. I got an aluminium radiator from Mike Satur and by now he should be able to supply stainless steel coolant pipes (had to get a normal mild steel one at the time).

Hope this helps,

Jason
Jason Ratcliffe

Thanks for your postings.
How can I describe where the leak is?If you open the boot,in morning when car is cold if you look down the back of the engine on the inlet manifold side there is visible signs of water leakage halfway down the engine to the left hand side.As soon as car is hot all signs disappear.Are there any water pipes in this area? Everything we have checked looks dry.On further examination when cold,water seems to be leaking from higher up the engine.Some people have suggested that this could be the radiator but that is at front of car.Could this be the head gasket?Or,just a water pipe leak.
Kate Green

Left hand side (near side) is good as thats where all the pipes are see http://www.mgfcar.de/epc/1079.htm
Jon Baker

Hi,

From back of engine removed top 3 nuts off inlet manifold,leak went from a drip to a deluge.Looked underneath- of the 4 nuts on the manifold the 2nd from the left is missing-Would this be the cause of water loss when cold? Suspect not replaced when head gasket done.Would this require a new gasket or just replacement of missing nut?

Thanks to everyone for your help this far.
Kate Green

I had a leak on my car, exactly as you describe - That turned out to be the inlet manifold. Only noticible when cold etc.. I was going to post yesterday to point you in that direction but it seems you have beaten me to it. If you are missing a nut then the gasket probably isn't getting the correct compression and this is the most logical reason for the leak (they might not have even torqued the nuts if they forgot to put one back!).

I would try replacing the nut in the first instance and torque them all up correctly. Having said that, shouldn't the garage do this for you?
Mark

Help! I have a 1997 MGF. Has anyone any advice regarding the replacement of the metal cooling pipes located under the car? I assume the cooling system will need to be bled as it is refilled so how is this done.
pete

Pete,

Have a look at http://www.apttony.co.uk/Servicing/HeaterPipes.html

regards
Tony
Tony

This thread was discussed between 01/06/2007 and 07/06/2007

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