Cooling QU

[VR6 Man 0]

I find my vr uses alot of water i have to top the bottle every 3 days(40-50 miles). is this about right or do i have a water problem. ps i dont have a leak.

[jcorallo 0]

Firstly, no - its not normal. As long as you are not overfilling the bottle, then you've got a leak. Is it wet ever under the expansion tank?

check inside the oil filler cap - if you see a milky residue, then its either head-gasket or oil cooler - same if you see an oily film inside the water tank.

if you can hear water bubbles gurgling when sat in the car with the ignition turned on after you have heated the engine up, then this points to a head gasket. I have a tool that sniffs the air in the water tank for combustion gases - which helps diagnose a bad gasket.

another common leak point on VR's is the aux water pump - at the back right of the engine when looking into the bay - the plastic pump housing can crack.

Lastly, you might have a rad leak - but not be able to see it. I have a leak on my radiator currently - I cannot for the life of me see where it is - there is no wetness when I look and no coolant stains anywhere - but when I sit in traffic in the morning on the way to work, I suddenly get a wisp of steam coming out the grill over the bonnet - as the car warms up. Then when up to temp - I dont get any more steam. Must be a pin hole somewhere - right up top of the rad where I cant see.

Jules

[VR6 Man 0]

thanks for the advice m8 hope it aint the head gasket, mind u i had 196 bhp on the rollers last week, would i not lose power?

ps u sure that steam aint water evaporating off the outside of ur rad when its heating up.

[jcorallo 0]

nah - I can smell the coolant when i lift the bonnet - so looks like I'm in for more expense very soon...!

The VR gaskets rarely crack badly, so you never see a loss in compression - but you tend to get a weepage into the coolant system. If this is the case, you would see wetness under the coolant tank where the excess pressure had forced the water out the relief valve.

Jules