Water loss on long runs, but not round the doors!!

[Jezware]

I am totally stumped by this, I can drive the surf for over 1000km doing short trips (upto 100 KM) and do not lose a drop of water, yet when driving 500km in one go, I lost 2 litres of water. I replaced the rad cap before doing the 500 km trip back, and still lost another 2 litres of water. Since I've got back though, I've done 400km over three days, and haven't lost a drop.

Anybody got any ideas?

[phoebelala]

I am totally stumped by this, I can drive the surf for over 1000km doing short trips (upto 100 KM) and do not lose a drop of water, yet when driving 500km in one go, I lost 2 litres of water. I replaced the rad cap before doing the 500 km trip back, and still lost another 2 litres of water. Since I've got back though, I've done 400km over three days, and haven't lost a drop.

Anybody got any ideas?

I used to have a 2.4 that sometimes dripped from the thermostat housing and sometimes did not. OK, this was after the pipes had been disturbed for some engine work but worth a look? Check around all the connections for signs of coolant egress, will be sticky or rusty coloured depending on the service intervals. Water pumps too can leak from the weep hole when the seal is failing and stop themselves by magic until they fail completeley.

[DaveD]

Not much help but... sounds as if something is expanding when it gets up to temp could be a pin hole near a clip or something. Check hoses etc after long run see if you can see where its escaping. You could try pinching your lady's talcum and spreading that all around hoses etc to show leak better.

[chasharman]

findin leak

if you do not find talc, try soaking all the suspected pipes etc, in fairy liquid. This is how you would normally find a leak in air systems, might work for hot water. Good luck.