Losing coolant

I need help. I bought my car in August at a dealer with a new uprated headgasket. It has lost a small amount of coolant from the day I bought it and it beginning to loose some more. A friend has lent me the tool to put pressure on the system and I can see some coolant (very little, no major dipping) escaping from somewhere. The drops are located on the right side at the buttom front of the engine after an hour on pressure. There is absolutely dry on the left side. I have taken the cambelt cover of to check the waterpump and it looks dry. No leaks from the top of the engine. It seems as if it is leaking from a place behind the exhaust cover on the right front side but I can not see any coolant pipes in that area. Can it be the headgasket leaking outwards? The oil and the coolant show no sign of HGF and the exhaust emmision shows NO water evaporation. Can anyone help.

Your correct there is no hoses that side on the front (assuming you are looking at it from the boot. This is what it looks like


Have you thought about the hose that runs from the bottom of the expansion tank and connects on the right side next to the cam belt cover?


Did you have look from underneath?

Yes I have.there is no leak underneath. It seems as if the leak is on the opposit site but still drivers site

When I did my head gasket using a cheap MLS with shim, I had a small leak from the cambelt end of the engine, just below the exhaust manifold, which was comming from the head joint.

It appears that the head skim I had done was not good enough for the shim (it had lots of very small marks made by the cutter) which meant the shim could not seal properly against the head. A quality MLS might have been OK though!

Re-did the gasket, but used a standard payen gasket, which sealed perfectly.

Peter

I had the same symptoms and problem a few weeks after fitting a multi shim head gasket. On my car the multi shim head gasket was leaking in the same position you have described. It was leaking out of the head at the side of the engine.. There was no mayo on the dipstick or oil in the water. After a run you could just about see a very fine line down the side of the engine if you looked very carefully. When the head was removed it became obvious that the gasket had been faulty from new. On further investigation there was chatter on the web about a faulty/poor batch. I replaced it wit ar victor Reinze one which is OK.

I have found a small leak in the area just above the alternator after removing the exhaust shield and using a mirror. Damn. -and I bought the car from a dealer with new gasket warrenty in the UK living in Denmark :bang: Hope he at least will pay for the parts. Do I need new stretch bolts again? and anything else apart from the gasket.

Have you tried retorquing the head? Whilst these days they say that It doesn't need to be done with modern gaskets, I've found sometimes doing things the old fashioned way, such as running over the head fasteners again with the torque wrench after the engine has done a few thousand km, helps.

I tried retorting and it did not work. The gasket was faulty when I miced it up. I suspect you have one of the faulty ones. You will need new stretch bolts.