Thread: TD5 leaks coolant only after being turned off

If you have leak at the bleed screw you will need a Oring
a screw or a hose if hose is more than five years old its worth
replacing.

Are you sure the drivers side leak is coming from the tank a
common leak when cooling down is from the fuel cooler Orings.

If it is coming from the tank over flow you could have faulty
Oring's in the cap or a faulty cap not letting out excess pressure.

It is normal to the pressure to increase when the engine is switched off

If you have no heating issues when driving around, I would start by changing the bleed screw and expansion tank cap, and going from there

There are lots of places where leaks can occur due to ageing seals

Hope it's just your ageing hose leaking at the bleed screw and hardened O rings leaking at the fuel cooler . The fuel cooler will leak with engine off and cooled down .This gets even worse in winter. Once the system is warm again the plastic bung type hose fittings at each end expand and seal off overiding the leaking O rings . Kits are available from MR AUTO.

Start with...

New hose & New Expansion Cap..

Common leak on drivers side after shutdown on a TD5 is Fuel Cooler - A Simple O'ring fix...

Bryan,
Classic head gasket on the way out or cracked head symptom I think. I experienced the same, which initially started as pressurised hoses after stopping engine, never showed overheating when driven. I also went through the cost of replacing pressure cap etc. Eventually led to multiple hose failures which is expensive. In hindsight I would have saved considerable money and trouble in accepting that I needed to deal with the head. Is your coolant clean on the surface of the header tank if not that is a pointer to a head problem.

Good luck
Nick

Guys --

Thanks for the feed back.

The top hose is quite new (a few years old) so I would not expect the gasket thingy to have failed.(but of course it might!)

I know its not the fuel cooler (as I have fixed this already too). (but it could have failed again ;-))

I don't have any heating issue driving around - -but we all know they gauge isn't very helpful here. I suppose one of those plugin programmer things would help here. (I should borrow one from a friend)

I've not checked the cleanliness of the coolant.

I suppose I could also go to a man and have them sniff for engine exhaust gas in the coolant...

thanks

Bryan.

Originally Posted by bryan

Guys --

Thanks for the feed back.

The top hose is quite new (a few years old) so I would not expect the gasket thingy to have failed.(but of course it might!)

I know its not the fuel cooler (as I have fixed this already too). (but it could have failed again ;-))

I don't have any heating issue driving around - -but we all know they gauge isn't very helpful here. I suppose one of those plugin programmer things would help here. (I should borrow one from a friend)

I've not checked the cleanliness of the coolant.

I suppose I could also go to a man and have them sniff for engine exhaust gas in the coolant...

thanks

Bryan.

Very hard to detect gasses in coolant on a TD5, I went through this on my TD5, if the system is pressurizing, then I'd say it's a head gasket, because that was my exact problem, if you want to test this out, get the engine up to temp, find a big hill and go up it under load(ie) tow a trailer, if it overheats, then it will be the head gasket.

Baz.