Thread: Idiot error massive coolant loss

Good luck on this. Stressful situation.

I think you mean the top radiator hose which goes to the plastic coolant crossover in the valley?

A common issue after removing this radiator hose and the jiggling of reassembly (in your case extreme) is the aged plastic crossover is damaged and starts to leak. It is a common cause of engine failure. I’d be checking that immediately for your small residual leak. If it’s older than 7 years change it. It can and will catastrophically fail eventually.

Disconnecting this is not needed for the fuel pump belt. When you remove the crossover pipe at back of engine a small amount of coolant is lost. Just top off after reassembly.

You do need to get the engine electric harness out the way for good access to the hpfp belt.

It doesn’t sound like you did any effort to bleed it via the many bleed ports. This will be why you had to keep topping it up. The float works in water or coolant - it’s simply a buoyant thing - it doesn’t understand water concentrations. That said, they are known to play up in old age and lose their buoyancy.

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

they are known to play up in old age and lose their buoyancy.

And when they do they can sink in water and float in coolant.

Originally Posted by BradC

And when they do they can sink in water and float in coolant.

Hmmm odd. Ok well I will happily stand corrected. Thanks Brad

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

Hmmm odd. Ok well I will happily stand corrected. Thanks Brad

No worries. Coolant is denser than water, so as the float progressively loses buoyancy it goes through a period of time where it acts a bit like a hygdrometer. It'll still float in a strong glycol, but it'll sink like a stone in pure water. It can be a bit perplexing if you are sitting there trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

Edit : always get those two mixed up.

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

It doesn’t sound like you did any effort to bleed it via the many bleed ports. This will be why you had to keep topping it up. The float works in water or coolant - it’s simply a buoyant thing - it doesn’t understand water concentrations. That said, they are known to play up in old age and lose their buoyancy.

Bleeding is always a good thing agreed

Originally Posted by PerthDisco

Good luck on this. Stressful situation.

I think you mean the top radiator hose which goes to the plastic coolant crossover in the valley?

A common issue after removing this radiator hose and the jiggling of reassembly (in your case extreme) is the aged plastic crossover is damaged and starts to leak. It is a common cause of engine failure. I’d be checking that immediately for your small residual leak. If it’s older than 7 years change it. It can and will catastrophically fail

No I didn’t remove the top hose, I replaced the black box that the top hose goes to about a year ago when I did the cam belt.
I removed the plastic pipe that goes to the transmission cooler and stuffed up when I put it back on.

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

It doesn’t sound like you did any effort to bleed it via the many bleed ports. This will be why you had to keep topping it up

When I did the drain and refill in the caravan park, when refilling I turned front and rear heater to hot and cracked all 3 bleeder ports,(expansion bottle, top cross over pipe and short hose near top hose).also the radiator guy cracked all 3 bleeder ports when I showed him where they were. Before doing the pressure test. Don’t think there will be any air pockets.