hi all topped up all the fluids for a long trip got back last night all ok this morning went to work and heater not working checked water and was low
checked oil and all clean no sign of head gasket failure is the a weak point in the pipes rad heat exchanger anyone can point out to check

 

four, I would start with taking a look on top of the tranny. do you see coolant collecting there. IF you are going to have an issue, the seal on the water pump is a good first check. Secondly, look at the overflow bottle and check the nipples on the bottle to see if any have a white line in them from where the nipple is cracking. That is another common leak point.

After that, it will be a hunt and peck thing of where it is leaking from. You may want to see if you are getting a "sweet" smell out of the vents inside the car. This is sometimes a hint that the heater core is leaking. Granted, this can also mean that the leak is near the cabin filter too. All you can do is get the car up to temp and do some looking around and see if you can spot any coolant dropping down on to the ground and then following the fluid from there.

 

found the leak or it found me drove to London the other day on a weekend trip parked up and steam out of bonnet water pump shaft seal!!! this going to cost a bomb to get fixed in London. Anyway rescue service turns up i was expecting truck to take the cat away no bloke gets out of van shaking a small plastic bottle puts this stuff in the expansion tank 30 seconds and the leak stops i then drive all round London for 2 days then drive 180 miles home and not a drop lost. The stuff he used was K seal i have bought a new pump and will be changing soon any advise to look out for

 

FLUSH, FLUSH, FLUSH. I am not a fan of the stop leak products and you may find that it has put a nice coating all over the surfaces of your cooling system and it has reduced your ability to remove heat. Probably not a problem now in the cold, but when it gets warmer, you may find that the car will overheat easier (if it will).

 

I agree i will flush the system when i change the pump but it did get me out of a deep expensive hole at the time

 

fourby, but did it possibly put you in a deep hole later on? That is the big question. See what you find and then go from there. That is all you can do. I think you will have a definitive answer when you pull the water pump off and you see if there is a layer on the internals of the motor or if it is still in a bare metal state. If you have a layer, then I would be really flushing the living snot out of that system and hoping you can get the stuff off.

 

Changed the water pump last weekend put some coolant fish in flushed that out 3 times with DI water so all is clean refilled with 50-50 high quality anti freeze all seems fine. I found no sign of any thing coating the pump or in the housing I checked the K-seal web site and they say it has no adverse effect on the cooling at all. When summer comes I will keep close eye on the temp gauge