AUII V8 Water Leak - Startup

[jpw171177]

Purchased a AUII Ghia V8 a month or so ago and found that it is slowly loosing coolant (water at the moment and now I know why).

I have traced it to around the passenger side rear corner of the engine bay. Near where the heater pipes go in through the firewall. Now the weird part is it only happens on start up and once running there is no sign of water leaking.

Anyone got any idea which pipes I should start looking at. Some do look quite new so I am wondering if they may not have sealed the hose correctly or used old hose on new components.

It is also a dual fuel setup so there are some additional hoses for that in that area too.

Any help would be greatly appreciated so I might have a little clue before pulling half the cooling system apart.

Regards,

James

[nat75]

have a look at the heater tap (its in the area that you refer to). they tend to get brittle with age and have tendency to leak.

[Bourbon Ute]

Could be the heater core leaking, which will then flow through a drain tube and appear around the left side chassis rail.
Other than that, have you checked the hose clamps around that area? One might be loose. If you still have the original spring clamps, make sure they are sitting correctly. On old hoses the clamps leave an impression over time. If the hose has been removed and the clamps are not sitting in these impressions they can leak.

[mik]

my first job on any car i buy new or old is to check every single hose fitting is tight, and the condition of the hoses, look for tell tale stains or corrosion near the fitting, some area`s it is hard to see get access to especially if you don`t have a hoist, a digital camera is a very usefull tool for taking a bunch of snaps in hard to see area`s , you can put them on the computer and study them a bit more carefully, if all else fails a cooling system pressure test can be done at most good work shops.

[AUFanboy]

The heater taps like to go brittle and crack, and they also sometimes leak where the tap shaft goes through the plastic body. The shaft seals seem to leak more when cold. It looks like this:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HEATER-TA...-/110713818619

If it's just got water in it some food dye might help find the leak?

[Gaz]

turn your heater on and see if it leaks.

IIRC vacuum is applied for the cold setting? closing the tap. So when you turn the car off the tap probably opens and it will leak as you start the car before the vacuum closes it?

At a guess! If the tap works the other way ignore me!

[jpw171177]

Thanks for the help, when i get sometime tomorrow night, I will have a better look at the heater tap.
Regards,

James