Thread: leaking coolant from the fuel cooler

Viton O-Rings are usually brown in colour ... not black.

Kev..

Hi All
Mine started to leak 2 days ago had just replaced the coolant and a few hoses after the harmonic balancer replacement. It must be something to do with the cold weather as there seems to be a heap of people with the same fault. New Cooler $700 + so I ihope the o rings work.
Regards
Doug

Originally Posted by Fluids

Viton O-Rings are usually brown in colour ... not black.

Kev..

Cheap Taiwanese o'rings in Viton are Brown

USA made are naturally black (but a dull not shiny black) or Brown or Pink!

For $1.40 they arent Viton and will only be NBR which will harden and fail in 6 months....

I use alot of viton o-rings in pump repair/rebuild on pumps doing agressive chemical duty ... never seen a black viton o-ring yet ... not that I doubt you, but never seen one. All come as part of a service kit ... and loose viton ones ordered via CBC have all been brown.

And just as an FYI ... any machinery/equipment containing viton o-rings/seals/gaskets should NOT be worked on if said equipment has been subjected to fire ... the resultant clear liquid/acid (flourosillic) emmited by burnt viton componentry is lethal. We have been warned about this due to the motor industry experiencing several cases of mechanics dissmantling vehicles which had front end damage and caught on fire, who were contaminated (1 died, 1 had an arm amputtated) due to the burnt viton components of the engines they were dissmantling.

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofluoric_acid]Hydrofluoric acid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

Kev..

Did the O ring transplant on saturday.No more red coolant on the drive YES I DID TOP IT UP!!!!!
Easy enough job,easy to re-use the clamps.A pair of "pincher" style pliers work well.
Andrew

Seems not restricted to the colder southern areas - our 2000 TD5 suffered the double ended water loss at the fuel cooler also in the last weeks. I got replacement o-rings (BS225 viton) and lube from CBC Brendale - $16 for the pair of rings so they had better be Viton!! Repair easy enough.

Strangely though after the repair I moved the car to a dry spot and let it run to ensure no hot temp leak. Water no leak but had fresh oil running freely down the passenger side front of the engine which seemed to come from the sump gasket or a bit above. I degreased and high pressure washed the engine to better spot the leak and when I restarted - no leak and no leak since for the last week. Very very strange - cheapest repair thus far!!