Coolant leak: behind right front tyre....

[barry300TE]

I run an 89 300TE Estate. While the car is parked up and cooling down, I get coolant dripping down from behind the right front tyre. I have had the coolant system looked at, and it is OK. The car is not running hot (around 80 degrees), and the temperature gradually goes up to 80 from cold, so it’s not running hot.

I have replaced the expansion tank cap with a brand new one. No change.

I had the top end done about 4 years/20,000 miles ago, so I am hoping it’s not the head gasket....

Any ideas outside the head gasket scenario??
Thanks

Barry

 

[horgantrevor]

some times if the system is too full of water it will dump the hot excess water out the over flow pipe .

this has happened to me it may be this

the quick way to check if the head gasket is giving trouble would look under oil filler cap for yellow gunck .. ide say its not do

may be a pipe is frayed or worn in the system also its an old car and some times the leaks only happen when the pipes gets hot and the gash or tear may let the water out and when cold it stops again . i would pull and bend the pipes looking for some rubbing off metal or other hoses .

hope this helps lets us know what happens

 

[barry300TE]

Oil filler cap is clean as a whistle. I will let you know how it goes. Another head gasket would probably finish the car for me, so I am hoping that it’s something simple.

Thanks!

Barry

 

[turnipsock]

I think there is a catch tank under the wheel arch. It's quite easy to remove the plastic bit that goes round the wheel arch to see what is going on.

 

[wireman]

Water in the oil is not the only diagnoses for a defective head gasket, it could be leaking gas (at a few thousnd PSI when firing) from any of the cylinders into the water, this needs only to be a tiny leak to pressurise the cooling system to above the pressure caps blow off point, eventualy this problem tends to turn the coolant orange/rusty coloured.

Over filling from cold will also blow off excess water, make sure that you top it up with antifreeze soloution.

 

[barry300TE]

It’s seems that the problem was a water pump. I also changed the expansion tank cap just in case that was the problem (£6 seemed worth it). It did get a bit leaking when I got the car back from the shop, but it seems to have stabilised now. Perhaps the catch tank mentioned above was overflowing for a bit after the repair? I may have a look.

Thanks for the replies!!

 

[television]

If you have been using air con then that would cause it

 

[Xtractorfan]

Yea air con I have noticed it on my car..

 

[Bolide]

Water pump failures are common on W124s at that kind of age / mileage. The water can drip onto the sh1tshield and find its way to the ground somewhere other than where the leak is

Do you know for sure it's coolant? If it's not I'd expect it's water from the a/c drain

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[turnipsock]

95 is the tank that hides in the front wheel arch.

I'm not sure what it does as there seems to be an option for an old fashioned overflow pipe.

I know one of my cars has one and I did have liquid from the same place.

 

[barry300TE]

Thanks for all the replies. My car doesn’t have AC, so it looks like the Water Pump was the culprit – it’s behaving now. The Water Pump was £124.00 from the dealer.

 

[barry300TE]

Thanks for the diagram, TurnipSock. It seems to be a bit mad to have that there– wouldn’t it be better just to have it run out onto the floor? Surely it doesn’t feed back in?

 

[barry300TE]

Update

It’s been a few weeks since the new water pump and expansion tank cap have been in place and that looks like that was the problem.