Hi I'm new to the smart car club, and own a passion 451, it has started to leak coolant water from the rear, close to the engine, I have heard it could be a gasket gone, but it could be the water pump, is this common or rare, the car has only done 23,000 miles, cheers
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Re: Coolant leak
What kind of coolant loss speed are we talking about? A few ml's a day? 300ml a day? Does it seem to "leak" more, when you drive it more?
First you need to verify this is a leak. There is more than one explanation for coolant loss, not all of them are leaks. I would start by parking the car on a flat surface overnight, laying newspaper sheets underneath weighed down with pebbles.
The come back the next day. The newspaper will show you exactly where the leaks are, then jacking the car up on its jacking point or crawling underneath, you can inspect the leak. Make sure it is coolant and not any other fluids or oil mixed with coolant. If it is coming more from the rear of the engine and not the front, you can rule out a cracked radiator or leaky flow or return hose. There will be a couple of hoses, going through the firewall/chassis into the passenger area for the air con and for engine flow. Going straight up from the newspaper stain, you can see where it is.
Then if it is just where a hose connects it is a simple fix. Go and buy gasket sealant maker paste, about £2-£5. Then loosen the clamp/clip around the hose, gently twist a little, side to side and pull the hose off. Then smear the paste around the connector, and twist and push the hose back on, smearing a external ring of the sealant maker around where the hose on the connector, meets the next part. If there is a split up the hose, you will need to replace it.
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A lazy way, buy a couple of packets of ce-lit off ebay, about £1 each. Add to the rad system while cold and off. Start and run ONLY locally. Then repeat the newspaper method that night. It shouldn't still leak, but if it does, put in a second sachet the next day. One sachet usually works well in sealing tiny leaks very well. Reason why I say to run locally is because on small rads, it can cause a tiny blockage for less than a minute as it circulates and is pushed through. That does no harm at a low speed, but at a high speed on the motorway, it can cause your temp to rise rapidly and then fall a few seconds later.
If it is coming from the waterpump area, doing any of the above for the home mechanic will be extremely tricky. I would advise a garage at that point if you aren't comfortable with quite involved mechanics.
It isn't very common, for a car with such low mileage to have this kind of problem. These kind of things don't usually crop up on other cars till 70k+ and I haven't really heard of coolant issues affecting the smarts too much. As I said, there are other reasons a car would lose coolant for example. On another car I once had, it was losing coolant daily, but no leaks. I found that the head gasket was shot and coolant was in the exhaust fumes.Last edited by wh666; 30-05-12, 09:42 PM.
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