(Another) Mysterious Coolant Loss

[sams-vans]

I had mysterious coolant loss for a while - maybe half a liter every 6 month. Done test with vapour, negative; test with blue liquid in the coolant reservoir negative. Pending further investigations I went around - In the last 3 days loosing around a liter every 400km. New blue liquid test in the coolant reservoir positive with change of colour to yellow in few seconds - they mentioned it is the head then. No evident water in oil, no evident leak otherwise of coolant after deep analysis. Currently in Greece. I doubt I will manage to return / may be worth getting repaired here… seems as if this time is not the usual suspect of the egr intercooler would have been nice but reading the forum I still wonder…

Super unlucky to have that happen while travelling.
Sounds like it could be a cracked head (uncommon in later models) or broken head gasket.
Might not present with visible oil contamination.
Both need the head off to confirm either way - assuming other tests, compression and leak down, also point in that direction.

I had a harmonic balancer fail on a motorway in Germany. While towing boats to Henley for crews competing in the regatta. Long story short. 5 days to fix and complete the journey. Boats arrived long after the races were finished.

 

[SMILING]

thank you for the insights, always useful to share misfortunes I was in Bulgaria this morning and they have just searched leaks around and then used the "Head gasket tester"/combustion leak tester fluid. The very fair one man mechanic super honest, spent 3hrs with me and didn't even want to be paid - forced money on him but he mentioned go away from Bulgaria - not the place to get this repaired, just to get ripped. They advised to continue at low spead of around 50mph keeping under 2000rpm if possible at all - refill water as needed and experience today with 400km is that on motorways at 50mph is worse off than in normal roads (albeit mountain roads a disaster). Made it to Greece and let's see if I can find some solutions in the capital later. Otherwise back to my base but I don't think that Germany/Italy or Greece make it a big difference to fix the issue. Most likely cheaper in Greece and benefit still from EU warranty or something...

 

[Dellmassive]

thank you for the insights, always useful to share misfortunes I was in Bulgaria this morning and they have just searched leaks around and then used the "Head gasket tester"/combustion leak tester fluid. The very fair one man mechanic super honest, spent 3hrs with me and didn't even want to be paid - forced money on him but he mentioned go away from Bulgaria - not the place to get this repaired, just to get ripped. They advised to continue at low spead of around 50mph keeping under 2000rpm if possible at all - refill water as needed and experience today with 400km is that on motorways at 50mph is worse off than in normal roads (albeit mountain roads a disaster). Made it to Greece and let's see if I can find some solutions in the capital later. Otherwise back to my base but I don't think that Germany/Italy or Greece make it a big difference to fix the issue. Most likely cheaper in Greece and benefit still from EU warranty or something...

you need to have the cooling system pressure tested,

its possible head gasket issue, but more likely EGR cooler leaking to inlet.

 

[SMILING]

Thank you for the input. So - if I understood you correctly - the head gasket tester per se is unable to confirm the cause of the gas in the coolant tank. Only pressure test would be able to confirm? Can an option be start to delete EGR cooler for good so that one variable is removed forever and recheck? I notice no loss of pressure, myself but as only person onboard seen no white smoke either. Willing of course to throw in 50€ for the egr delete plates to start with and getting them delivered in Greece to start with

 

[DXX]

Thank you for the input. So - if I understood you correctly - the head gasket tester per se is unable to confirm the cause of the gas in the coolant tank. Only pressure test would be able to confirm? Can an option be start to delete EGR cooler for good so that one variable is removed forever and recheck? I notice no loss of pressure, myself but as only person onboard seen no white smoke either. Willing of course to throw in 50€ for the egr delete plates to start with and getting them delivered in Greece to start with

You can’t just fit EGR delete plates, the EGR needs to be mapped out (illegal in the UK).
If the EGR cooler is leaking I would also remove the two EGR hoses and join them together, don’t do this on a CFCA or you’ll disable the oil cooler as it’s combined.

 

[SMILING]

I am on CXFA. I didn’t fully get what pressurizing the system can reveal. With cap closed currently the coolant drops significantly under the minimum and above certain rpm results in coolant leaks. Why Do you believe it is more likely for the EGR cooler to be the culprit? Just to make sure shop doesn’t start to fuff - how do you get absolute proof of EGR cooler fault?

 

[Dellmassive]

EGR cooler water leak is a very common issue, and symptom is unexplained internal water loss.

Head gasket or cracked head is very unlikely.

They connect a pressure tester to the expansion vessel and pressurize the cooling system, when the pressure drops they look in the EGR or cylinders via glow plug hole to look for the water drips.

9/10* times the water leaking to the EGR cooler air side.

 

[Dellmassive]

EGR cooler water leak is a very common issue, and symptom is unexplained internal water loss.

Head gasket or cracked head is very unlikely.

They connect a pressure tester to the expansion vessel and pressurize the cooling system, when the pressure drops they look in the EGR or cylinders via glow plug hole to look for the water drips.

9/10* times the water leaking to the EGR cooler air side.

Just had one done in my second van.


Post in thread 'Dellmassive`s Camper Van Adventure' Dellmassive`s Camper Van Adventure



.

 

[Dellmassive]

Example .

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[DXX]

EGR cooler water leak is a very common issue, and symptom is unexplained internal water loss.

Head gasket or cracked head is very unlikely.

They connect a pressure tester to the expansion vessel and pressurize the cooling system, when the pressure drops they look in the EGR or cylinders via glow plug hole to look for the water drips.

9/10* times the water leaking to the EGR cooler air side.

Wot he said.
A pressure test should be conducted from hot to cold over at least 12 hours and still may not reveal a leak.
It could also put coolant into a cylinder and you end up with a hydro locked and wrecked engine. This is a major risk if you carry on running this engine, plenty of documented cases.
Don’t forget to carry out an oil service after replacing the EGR unit.

 

[SMILING]

You seem at odds (DXX & Dellmassive) on the pressure test and risk.
I see what you are saying DXX about the fact that a pressure test may still not reveal a leak. So what's the way out? Just replace the EGR cooler which is only 300 quid or so and see? On the positive side, while making the progress to return - 350km of normal roads and didn't loose any water/coolant.

 

[SMILING]

The saga continues: pressure test didn't reveal anything - no sign of leakage. Now lifting the vehicle and repeating pressure test. For sure even staying at low rpm I lost around 2 liters in the span of 4 days - so it is going somewhere. I am not sure they checked the bloody EGR while doing the test or simply 'looked around'.

With some people we checked and no signs of white smoke, nor mayo so far. I wonder what is the next step if the pressure test doesn't show anything.

 

[DXX]

Ref post #30

 

[SMILING]

And now they say that they see a leak from the water pump - may be another issue but wouldn’t explain exhaust in the coolant tank. I will get that changed but I am adamant in getting them to change EGR too as don’t wanna end up with hydrolocked engine or other engine damage anyway

 

[DXX]

And now they say that they see a leak from the water pump -

Probably because they over pressured it when pressure testing for the leak earlier!

 

[SMILING]

saga updates. Replaced water pump - same problem. The water pump per se had oring issues and was leaking a bit but the problem remains. I forced a new mechanic to replace the egr and see. He started with loads of theories but still cannot find any visible leak during replacement. Only the starter was full of rust and coolant (but I live in the mountains where there is loads of salt but doesn’t explain the pink). Any ideas of why of this? Let’s see…tomorrow

 

[SMILING]

So this was just the plastic connector loosing from a pipe. Anyway replaced EGR - didn’t loose ‘much’ anymore and clearly no exhaust in the expansion tank anymore BUT the big bit is that after 1800km there has been still a coolant loss of around 400ml. So one wonder WTF is it?

 

[Wildcamper]

saga updates. Replaced water pump - same problem. The water pump per se had oring issues and was leaking a bit but the problem remains. I forced a new mechanic to replace the egr and see. He started with loads of theories but still cannot find any visible leak during replacement. Only the starter was full of rust and coolant (but I live in the mountains where there is loads of salt but doesn’t explain the pink). Any ideas of why of this? Let’s see…tomorrow

View attachment 298729

G12 coolant is pink

 

[DXX]

So this was just the plastic connector loosing from a pipe. Anyway replaced EGR - didn’t loose ‘much’ anymore and clearly no exhaust in the expansion tank anymore BUT the big bit is that after 1800km there has been still a coolant loss of around 400ml. So one wonder WTF is it?

Are you sure it’s not just an coolant system airlock that’s cleared after running?