Club 80-90 Forums

Been out in the van tonight and as I pulled up noticed a load of steam in my mirror, knocked the motor off, jumped out to find the engine dumping its water all over the road.

Its too dark to look now so going to have a butchers in the morning, but wondered if there were any common probs to look out for?

Its a 2.1 DJ in a Whitestar and the steam appeared to be coming from the back (ie gearbox end) of the engine.

Noticed the last couple of days the water light on the dash flashed a lot longer than usual but went out eventually, water temp guage sitting in the middle, rad fan coming on etc. I did have to top up both water tanks the other day.

Oh, and the oil is clean (phew!)

cheers, Chris.

Hi
the commonest leak is 'tired' head gaskets, the rubber rings bout 1cm wide you can see where head joins crankcase. They get old and brittle/shrink, especially when theres a nip in the air!

But, you mentioned 'nearer the gearbox'....
on RHS of gearbox are 4 water pipes. Two of em are 'crinkly' and go to/from radiator. The other two are smooth and smaller diameter and go to/from heater matrix. The culprits are often the two main (crinkly) ones as they pass through the engine bay panelwork using a 32mm mild steel pipe joint. This corrodes and you end up with a pin hole in it, leaking coolant. Its a bugger to trace unless you warm up van (so system is pressurised and fan kicking in etc) and get underneath with a wadge of tissue paper.....

Just two of probably loads you could try....

could also be the o seals on one on the temp senders which are below the thermostat housing front l/h side near the gearbox end