Club 80-90 Forums

i have a g reg 16td jx engine and it seems to be using alot of water there is no water in the oil but maybe after 100 ish miles my water light flashes any ideas ???

If there is one thing I do regularly on my 1.6Td it is tightening up / replacing hose clips or hoses. And most recently the water pump gasket was leaking. I have an advantage that on my driveway it's very obvious when I have a leak as it leaves a mark. However to have regularly lost the fluid that you appear to, it should be obvious if it were a leak by just close inspection after a run, lsiten for hiss or steam at the front, feel if the radiator has actually got hot because mine didnt when it has air locks. It could be that your head gasket is faulty and when mine went I didnt have sludge in it but it just suffered the overheat problems associated with air being forced into the system. If your water light is coming on, it is designed to flash when the water level in the main bottle is below the sensors,( mine flashed irrespective for while but thats another story) that implies that your engine may well have drawn off the water in the expansion bottle too ( behind number plate). Both bottles together must be about a litre or so. My garage pressurised my system overnight to see if they could promote a leak, and once this was ruled out we thought the head was the problem. This happened at 127K on my 1.6TD.
Dont panic untill you can prove you have no leaks anywhere front and back and there quite a few places to go looking.

Hi,

Some days ago, my van, the light on the panel was flashing, but was the expansion bottle a bit empty. Try to put the engine on and then wait for the normal working temperature and go to underside of the van to check for leaks...
Mine is a 1.6Td with 257k kms on the clock and I pray for no problems in a near future, hope at least be happy till Jan 2007

Mine just started using a little water but there was no evidence of any leaks externally and also internally from around the heater matrixes. After several minutes I noticed that water was weeping from the plastic coolant hose flange just behind the diesel fuel pump, the water was dribbling down the head but evaporating of the hot head. This part is £6.35 from GSF and is a two bolt fix. Water back to normal.

ps mine also a 1.6turbo diesel jx

That is just typical of the cunning this engine has for water leaks. Anyway i hope it turns out to be a leak as its much cheaper to fix.

luckly it was just a split hose but whilst taking it off i broke the electric eater pump

Be aware that the sign of the engine on the way to its (re)maker is loss of coolant, through cracks in the head. There are cracks from 50K onwards but they get bigger and by 100K usually start losing coolant until it is too much to keep filling . Usually by then engine worn out any way so get a decent recon.
Nice if it is a simple leak- never was for me though
( been there , done it)

since i've repaired the split hose i've not used any water so fingers crossed i'll be ok my van has done well over 300k miles but still running well