'99 DW8 Dispatch: Water leak where the engine block meets the coolant hoses

[kenbw2]

Come back to my van to notice a pool of liquid on the floor. Got underneath and found it's around the plastic(?) piece that bolts onto the back of the block.







From what I can see though it's coming out the bolt, which is odd.

Any reason not to unbolt it so I can inspect what's going on?

[GiveMeABreak]

It won’t be coming from the bolt; if you follow it back to where it bolts on, you’ll see that the coolant manifold gasket (6) is directly below the bolt thread, so it is probably leaking from there and the coolant is being forced up under pressure so it appears to be coming from the bolt.

So you’ll probably need a new gasket, but expect to lose coolant when you take it apart.

[kenbw2]

Okay, took it all off and checked the gasket. Gasket seems perfectly fine and sits in the slot nicely. I did notice when I put it back on I heard a distinct cracking of plastic noise. I suspect the part has become brittle and cracked around the bolt hole. Time to try a new one of those.





As you can see that pipe is fairly well broken, although just about holding I think.

Ther are a couple of notches in it which seems odd, but they look deliberate:

[GiveMeABreak]

The whole water inlet tank is not expensive, part 1336P0, currently £24.60 inc. VAT from Citroen Ken. These plastic units get brittle over time so I think it would be a waste of time trying a repair - at this price it's cheap enough to replace.

[white exec]

Clean up the joint thoroughly, use a new seal too, and use Hylomar Blue on the joint.

[kenbw2]

Yea definitely going to replace the part and get a new seal.

[kenbw2]

Got the new part on order for delivery tomorrow morning. How tight should I be fastening the bolts to avoid cracking the plastic? (roughly, I don't have a torque wrench)

[xantia_v6]

Just enough to fully compress the rubber gasket. Maybe imagine you are using a large screwdriver and tightening a large screw.

[GiveMeABreak]

I was going to dig out the torque settings, but I won't now as you don't have a Torque Spanner

[kenbw2]

Got the new part, took the old one off and sure enough, a pretty long crack on the inside and outside:



Put the new one on, filled up the water, and hey presto, no leaks!

I discovered in working on this that I'd forgotten to plug my low coolant sensor plug in ages ago. I last checked the coolant level about 70 miles before I noticed the pool of water on the floor, so here's hoping I haven't overheated something