V6 water leak

[Lancaster-c5]

Hi All /Jim
My Xantia V6 has water leak from the back of the engine,after jacking up the car and looking I cannot see where it is coming from only the general area.ie below the hydraulic oil tank.On the ground below the leak I found a 3 shaped piece of plastic. Is this part of a clip ?If anyone has any pictures or diagrams of the back of the engine near the bulk head could they post them or PM them to me so I can see where the leak is.
Many thanks
Howard

[CitroJim]

Hi Howard,

The most likely place for the leak to be occurring is the expansion tank. They have a habit of cracking around the seam in the middle and a broken seam will be given away by crystallised coolant.

Below the expansion tank is a plastic spherical affair called a de-gassing tank or 'bubble-breaker' these can develop crack (often almost invisible hair-line ones) and leak.

Thirdly, there's a short pipe between the side of the bubble-breaker and the engine that's prone to split...

This is the hose that can split - visible just below the throttle body...



This is a well split header tank showing the anti-freeze stain



I can't think what the clip thing is Howard. Can you take a picture of it and post it up?

This is a diagram of the cooling system. the bubble-breaker is item2...

[citroenxm]

The good news IS.. the coolant tanks appear to STILL be available from Citroen, I dont think they are a silly price either. Also fitted to the 2.1 12v TD Engines too

[andmcit]

I've had the aerator sphere (no 2 in the diagram above) that sits below the expansion tank Jim mentions
and the LHM reservoir split completely around it's midriff. I can't say it's inboard towards the centre of
the bulkhead as that illustration shows mind - it seemed to be at the corner of the engine when I changed it
whicgh seems right but the expansion bottle looks to be in a different position!

It certainly failed dramatically dumping hot water onto the exhaust which made the car fill a dual carriageway
with what I believed was smoke from fire from underneath the car - eerie as an Xm I had did this very thing
self combusting on THE EXACT stretch of road...

[Lancaster-c5]

Hi .
Thank you for the suggestions for the location of my leak at least I now know what to look for.I will give an update when I find it.
Howard.

[CitroJim]

The degassing tanks are still available from stealers and are a good price too - last ones I bought were under £20 each...

[falling-out-with-my-car]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CARGO-SEAL-UP ... 2ea5c4796f" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hi, I know I shall probably be scorned for mentionning this but the link above shows something called Cargo Sealent something that Barry at Bourne citroen recommended for stopping my heater matrix leak after I tried forte stop leak and it failed miserably, there is a procees to using this stuff which involves drainning the coolant completely flushing with fresh water drainning again then adding the repair solution with fresh water and running the engine for an hour (as barry described to me) you then drain the system once more let the car sit with no coollant over night and refill the following day with your mix of antifreeze and water.

so far so good on my xantia heater matrix it works much better than the forte stop leak it has a silicate in it like glass that apparently sets hard once it reaches fresh air. my passenger carpet is nice and dry now at long last. it is supposed to cope with 3000 psi of pressure and bond with plastics to. it does say permenant repair. my expansion bottle level has not dropped yet at all.

if it is only used as a temporary repair as least it would be useful to get someones vechicle through to a part of the year that has more daylight and warmer weather to go outside and strip their vechicle down. if they don't have a garage at home.

just a thought anyway and I do appreciate that most would rather fix a problem properly, as it is the cost of replacing my heater matrix with Bourne Citroen is about £300 acording to Barry and for a dashboard out job thats not bad in my book. Barry says that out of all the cars heater matrixes he has done with this Cargo stop leak only one has ever been back again with the same problem,(a picasso) thats a pretty bold statement for a garage owner to make and it would seem that he has complete faith in this product, apparently it is available in Halfords to. I asked Barry to do the job because of my current health problems he charged me £30 because I supplied 5ltrs of antifreeze otherwise the job would have been £50.00

regards Nigel.

[CitroJim]

Nigel I'm sure it's an excellent product for 2CVs and things but I'd not let it within a thousand miles of a Xantia V6. Some sealants are known to choke the transmission cooler - this is fact as I have experienced it - and then as a result of an inoperative cooler the gearbox has thrown its toys big-time...

The ONLY sealant worth a try in a V6 especially is Forte Stop Leak but I fear Howard's is a tad too big for this to work. Forte Stop Leak will not choke the cooler.

On this rough topic I saw our local factor is selling cylinder head gasket repair in a bottle. They say it works... for a time... Some customers are buying it regularly

Whatever's leaking, these remedies in a bottle can only ever be considered a stop-gap (no pun intended) until the problem can be properly fixed...

[citroenxm]

I never P*i*s*s about with sealents at all! Never entertain them! I dont beleve in them! What else are they blocking up?? Your head gasket?

Theres nothing better then to takle the job and get the Matrix swapped or what ever may be leaking. Yes its work, but its better then blocking something else cruical.. like a tranmission cooler...

[falling-out-with-my-car]

well there you are My first sentence was correct wasn't it Its trully amazing how much critizim you get on this website and this is exactly why I dont bother much anymore each to there own anyway.
as I said it may or may not be a reasonabhle temporary solution to someone. in a manner of speaking.

citro-jim you suprize me a 2cv is air cooled.

regards Nigel.

[CitroJim]

It's not criticism Nigel, it's what you must not do to a Xantia V6 with a coolant leak - as simple as that. I'm not quite sure how I could have rephrased it not to look like criticism really. The fact is that you must be extremely careful what cooling system sealer you use in a Xantia and in a V6 especially. End of... I say this with conviction after fighting several battles with Xantias that have been treated to magic potions in their cooling systems. I'm sorry but I have strong opinions on this subject especially and snake-oils in general.

And Paul makes a valid point too.

citro-jim you suprize me a 2cv is air cooled.

Sorry Nigel. It's my sense of humour - please forgive me.

[Hell Razor5543]

In my job there are times when I will not follow the approved route to fixing a problem, as experience has shown me that in certain circumstances it either doesn't work, or what I do is more effective. On the occasion that I told my manager what I had done he "threw his toys out of the cradle", and only the fact that what I had done had resolved the clients' problem stopped him from giving me a warning. There are times when the "approved method" either does not work, or can cause bigger problems. Just because what you have done is not the "right way" does not mean it is wrong. Sometimes you have to learn from your mistakes, while other times you find it was a better way to fix the problem.

[CitroJim]

Hell, I completely agree and use many 'alternative' methods to keep our beloved cars on the road and to get other tasks completed as well... And indeed there are times when such things need to be done on a temporary basis to keep a service going...

But, there are times when it can be dangerous and counter-productive and the use of some types of coolant additive in a V6 Xantia is one such.

[falling-out-with-my-car]

You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry. Most people do. ~Norman Juster

my appolagies Jim obviously my ingorance on the welfare of a V6 is bliss. esspecially as I don't own one
I was under the assumption that if this stuff doesnt set untill it meets with the outside air it should be relatively safe.

[CitroJim]

You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry. Most people do. ~Norman Juster

I like that saying a lot Nigel I've not heard it before and it's a good one - thanks for sharing it

You should try a V6 Nigel - they're bliss I was thinking of selling mine the other day as it is only used on long trips nowadays but one drive of it said my relationship with it was far from at an end...