coolant everywhere

J

jamesr

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I was out driving yesterday and whilst accelerating down a slip road to join the motorway, i over took a lorry, at which point my windscreen was suddenly covered in spray. It was a sunny day and happened at exactly the point as i passed the lorry, so i just presumed they where possibly cleaning their windscreen and it had sprayed over to me.

Further on i noticed that there was also a stream of spray up the centre of my bonnet and when i arrived at my destination and checked, there was coolant all over the front grill and bumper and in a line from the top of the grill, all the way up the bonnet and over the windsreen. I then opened the bonnet and there was coolant sprayed everywhere.

The thing is, i was doing about 70mph when this happened, so where ever it came from, it was obviously sprayed forward with some force. Unfortunately due to the amount coolant that was sprayed around the engine bay, it was pretty hard to tell the origin. There was also no noticeable lose of power at the point it occurred, although, i was slightly distracted by my sudden loss of view.

When i started the car in the morning and reversed out of the garage i did notice a trail of water that appeared to have come from the exhaust. A friend suggested that this could have something to do with my head gasket, but the car is still running very smoothly although it does seem to have lost a bit of power in acceleration. I do have a leaking radiator, but there's been no noticeable temperature rise and no sign of over heating.

Could anyone please suggest what might have happened for the coolant to suddenly be sprayed with such force, but not have any noticeable affect on the running of the car?

Cheers,

James
 
James:

It would be pretty hard - at least for me - to pinpoint the cause of your coolant leakage from the information provided. A few random thoughts:

You wrote: "When i started the car in the morning and reversed out of the garage i did notice a trail of water that appeared to have come from the exhaust." Well, that could be unrelated to the coolant you saw the day before. Condensation in the exhaust system will spew out the tailpipe as sooty water when a car is first started. As long as this goes away once the exhaust system warms up, it is probably normal.

"the car is still running very smoothly although it does seem to have lost a bit of power in acceleration" If leaked coolant got the ignition wires wet, you may have some short circuiting which would lead to misfiring. Are the wires and/or distributor cap covered with coolant?

You didn't report on the coolant level. When the engine is cool, take off the cap on the expansion tank, and check the level - no doubt it will be down, but how far?

There is certainly a leak somewhere, but whether it is the waterpump, a hose, or the headgasket is difficult to say. Have you looked for sources of leaks, or puddles underneath the car with the hood open and the engine running?
 
Hi Jay, thanks for the quick reply.

The liquid from the exhaust was on the morning of my journey, before the coolant went everywhere. I did check my exhaust at the end of the journey when i got back home and it appeared to be dry.

With the engine running, looking under the hood i can't see anything leaking. The only leak is the one on the bottom of the radiator. Actually, apart from that, i also noticed the seam on the coolant reservoir seems to have split slightly and when the engine is hot, hot air, bubbles and a very small amount of coolant come out.

The coolant in the reservoir does go down, but i just figured this was due to the radiator leak. Saying that, i only ever check it the next time i come to drive the car, so my presumption is based on the length of time in between drives and i have no idea how much is actually lost during each journey.

As for the wires and distributor cap, unfortunately everything was covered in coolant so i didn't check anything in particular. Although the engine was still running smoothly and there was no misfiring.
 
James:

Well, generally your best strategy in situations like this is to start by fixing what you know is bad, and see how the symptoms change. That is, have the radiator and coolant reservoir fixed, and see if there is continued coolant loss. Perhaps this alone will fix the problem.
 
One of the symptoms of a failed head gasket is combustion gases getting into the cooling system which may increase the coolant system pressure. In my case I could see bubbles in the coolant reservoir while the engine was warm and runnning (bad sign). Take off the cap and run the engine until warm to check for bubbles. Usually head gasket problems will also show with poor engine idling especially when cold.

good luck.
 
Thanks again Jay and cheers Sven, i'll take a look at that tomorrow.

From the little i know about the cooling system, am i correct in thinking, that due to the fact the water pump is connected to a pulley off the crank shaft, it's put under more pressure during acceleration, as the coolant gets pumped at a faster rate?

As the problem occurred under acceleration, i'm wondering if something in the cooling system has given way under pressure and released the coolant? Does this sound like something familiar? Is the water pump connected directly to the engine (with a gasket) and has a return pipe going back into it?
 
Between car speed, fan, and air outlets on top of the hood it is not surprising that coolent was coming out and hitting you right in your face! Keep it simple....its the radiator, water pump,thermostat housing, or hose. I just went through this and I thought that someone was cleaning their windshield as I was driving down the road and I was getting sprayed. It turned out to be a leak from the hose at the bottom of the radiator.....try to figure out how that water ended up hitting my windshield when the leak was at the bottom.
BTW its not unsual to leak to have water coming out of the tail pipe between condensation also as a byproduct of carbohydron combustion.
abe
 
Cheers Abe, i'll take a look at it over the next couple of days and report back my findings.
 
Though not on a BMW, I once had a car that developed a pinprick hole in one of the hoses.
The hole was tiny enough to be unnoticable when inspected with the engine off, but let the engine run for a while with the hood open, and if your problem is the same you'll notice the amount of pressure with which the water is forced out of the hole, it's like a pressurewasher. It certainly covers everything in sight with coolant.

Good luck.
 
James:
Find someone with a cooling system pressure tester and you will quickly identify the leaks. If you have multiple leaks you may have to set them right one at a time to get the system to hold pressure (just above where the pressure cap releases)
This is also the best way to bleed the air out of the system.
Tom
 
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