Ok, the car is losing water atm. have to fill up every three weeks. Now today it overheated so due for a top up. As i started the car then shoved the hose in the tank as it filled up and then overflowed abit i noticed all the water was red.(yes don't ask. we are using no coolant atm. 100% water. too much trouble to put coolant when it loses it all in 3 weeks.) So what does this red water mean exactly?

where is it loosing water from?

2 things. i think your car needs to be taken to a radiator place if it needs to be filed evre 3 wks and the second thing is g'day im kyle.

Who knows mate. My dad couldn't give two ****s about his car unfortunetely. Next service it goes in(2000km) he will ask about it. In the meantime we are just filling it up when it needs it. So does the red water mean corrosion in the radiator?

Who knows mate. My dad couldn't give two ****s about his car unfortunetely. Next service it goes in(2000km) he will ask about it. In the meantime we are just filling it up when it needs it. So does the red water mean corrosion in the radiator?

i would say so mate, probably a browny/red. when you fill it up, is there an obvious place where it leaks from?

ur cars bleeding!!!! take it to a hospital. its in pain!

Damn,Is the car running badly?
Oil coming out of the Exhaust?
IF so,then you've blown or warped ur head:doubt:
Get it to a Radiator joint b4 things get worse,it'll cost more in the longrun if you find out
1 of the above has happened:cry:

Damn,Is the car running badly?
Oil coming out of the Exhaust?
IF so,then you've blown or warped ur head:doubt:
Get it to a Radiator joint b4 things get worse,it'll cost more in the longrun if you find out
1 of the above has happened:cry:

Nah mate, nt oil from the exhaust(well that we have noticed anyway). It's got very noisy tappets and is quite low on power atm but i think it just needs a good tune. Has been 8500km since it went in for a service. So if there's not oil do you think it's now a corroding radiator? Or still the head? Also if it's corroding that means that the actual radiator is where it's losing all the water from. Correct? Not hoses or water pump or anything like that???

Red Water???????.Is your car a auto?????????.Is it oily????????You may have a busted cooler coil for the automatic in you radiator.If so it's a ASAP job.

The corrosion in the radiator would be a symptom of running plain water thru it (coolant is also a rust/corrosion inhibitor). I'd say the color is being caused by a combination of corrosion within the radiator and iron oxide (rust) from the water jackets in the cast iron block. Either way - the more sediment builds up - the more chance of causing a blockage in the radiator.

The fact that you are losing water at such a rate indicates that there is a leak in the cooling system somewhere - it will be either internal, or external. An external leak is easy to identify by the fact that there will be a puddle of water under your car! You haven't mentioned that there is any evidence of an external leak - so my fellow members are assuming that the leak must be internal.

An internal leak is normally associated with a breech in the seal between the head and the block. It could be... a blown head gasket, broken or cracked head bolts, or a warped head caused by previous overheating (incase you don't know - don't fill your radiator with cold water when the engine's overheated - especially if the engines running). Other symptoms of a blown head gasket/warped head and to a lesser extent broken head bolts is a certain amount of engine oil loss. The extent of the damage will dictate how the water/oil are leaking etc. in the most extreme case - oil and water could be leaking into your cyliners which would cause white smoke and steam to be expelled out your exhaust. I've also seen cases where broken head bolts were causing water and oil to leak between the head and the block on the exhaust side of the engine - because of this, the water was evaporating from the heat of the headers - therefore no visible sign of water leak.

*edit* I've just noticed you mention very noisy tappits - I recommend checking your oil level if this is the case.

well from what we can see it's not a external leak and i think the leak is quite slow(since it takes 3 weeks and not say a couple of hours to dissapear) so if it was external it would be quite hard to notice. Do you consider water from the hose "cold water"? I let it cool down for about 5 min or so before i turned it back on and put the water in. and also no steam from the exhaust yet.

well from what we can see it's not a external leak and i think the leak is quite slow(since it takes 3 weeks and not say a couple of hours to dissapear) so if it was external it would be quite hard to notice. Do you consider water from the hose "cold water"? I let it cool down for about 5 min or so before i turned it back on and put the water in. and also no steam from the exhaust yet.

Steam from the exhaust would be almost invisible - therefore impossible to see. If the engine has overheated.... I would recommend waiting at least half an hour before filling it with cold water (as far as a car engine is concerned - tap water is cold).

It may even be something as simple as the radiator cap. Remove the radiator cap and inspect the rubber seal on the bottom of it. If the seal is hard/cracked/deteriorated in anyway - water vapor will be excaping there when the cooling system is pressureised. 3 weeks isn't an overly fast leak - so it could be something as simple as that.

Like others have said - best not to leave these things till its too late. I'd bee booking it in for a radiator pressure test at the bare minimum right away.

So would i but it's not my car unfortunetely. lol. Don't worry when i start drivin it i won't be treating it like a total bomb. but at the moment it's my dads responsibility. Well anyways thanks alot for your help. I'll tell him all your advice and we'll see how it goes. I'll keep ya posted.

Red Water???????.Is your car a auto?????????.Is it oily????????You may have a busted cooler coil for the automatic in you radiator.If so it's a ASAP job.

i definetly agree with this, if this is the cause then water will be going into ur trans aswell, also pull off the oil cap and look for a milky type substance both on the cap and inside the rocker cover, also has the car been turning over slower than normal (cause of water in the cylinder increasing the compression), these might indicate a head gasket

I would recommend waiting at least half an hour before filling it with cold water (as far as a car engine is concerned - tap water is cold).

nah its only going into the radiator, it will warm up pretty quick in there anyway mate.

i definetly agree with this, if this is the cause then water will be going into ur trans aswell, also pull off the oil cap and look for a milky type substance both on the cap and inside the rocker cover, also has the car been turning over slower than normal (cause of water in the cylinder increasing the compression), these might indicate a head gasket

tranny oil goes no where near coolant :confused: and rusty colour water means your head and block are corroding, possibly clogging the water jackets thru the head gasket (where its the smallest) causing serious problems. if you insist on just topping it up, every 2 weeks put a 3 dollar tin/bottle of corrosion inhibiter in there to slow down the rooting of your engine :rant:

tranny oil goes no where near coolant :confused: and rusty colour water means your head and block are corroding, possibly clogging the water jackets thru the head gasket (where its the smallest) causing serious problems. if you insist on just topping it up, every 2 weeks put a 3 dollar tin/bottle of corrosion inhibiter in there to slow down the rooting of your engine :rant:

well if it auto then the cooler is part of the radiator, therefore if has somehow broken inside then it will be mixing, maybe just check the colour of the transfluid.

i have heard of cases where this has been the case and it has ended up stuffing the trans

We were checkin it out the other day. Well yeh it's near certainly done a head. My dad took the radiator cap off, stuck his finger in, pulled it out and it was covered in oil so he told me yeh it's done a head. Now is there anyway of tellin whether the it's actually the head thats ****ed or just the gasket? He also made a point though of it being extremely low on oil(thats why it's makin such a racket) but he made a point about if it had done a head it wouldn't be that low cause theres a ****load of water in there. I also put some more water in it the other day when the engine was cold but no red water came out this time?? So yeh is there anyway of tellin whether it's a gasket or a cracked head(my dad would know these things but haven't got time to tok to him) and how much would all this cost? Whether it be a gasket or a cracked head?

We were checkin it out the other day. Well yeh it's near certainly done a head. My dad took the radiator cap off, stuck his finger in, pulled it out and it was covered in oil so he told me yeh it's done a head. Now is there anyway of tellin whether the it's actually the head thats ****ed or just the gasket? He also made a point though of it being extremely low on oil(thats why it's makin such a racket) but he made a point about if it had done a head it wouldn't be that low cause theres a ****load of water in there. I also put some more water in it the other day when the engine was cold but no red water came out this time?? So yeh is there anyway of tellin whether it's a gasket or a cracked head(my dad would know these things but haven't got time to tok to him) and how much would all this cost? Whether it be a gasket or a cracked head?

Only real way to know for sure is to pull the head off. I had to go thru the fiasco a couple of years ago with my previous car - cause it had been very slowly loosing oil and water for about 6 months. You'll know as soon as you lift the head what the problem was. In my case, I had one head bolt which was completely sheared off, and the two on either side were cracked part of the way thru.

I recommend putting the head into a workshop once you've got it off, regardless of how straight it looks. Get it re-machined, they'll check the vavle seating, and re-seat if needed, and from what I'm hearing you'll probably need a few water jackets re welded as a result of corrosion.

If you have oil in your water and not the other way around (Losing engine oil).Then you have a cracked head, which is cracked thru the cam followers where there is higher pressure from the oil pump etc.,This was what i found on my sons TM he had at the time when it had oil in the radiator.NEW head :headbange

how much for a new head?

got a spare kidney? :bowrofl:
300.

take it to a shop and bite the bullet, unless you plan on doing it yourself but its hard to find out which head it is and if you machine one you should machine the other so they both come off and both get tested and recon'd which for 2 heads is twice the price, upwards of 300 for my head recond (3cyl) so you might be looking at 700 before you even buy gaskets and reinstall them..... check the radiator to see if its not the tranny fuild escaping thru the core.

if you insist on just topping it up, every 2 weeks

We don't insist on just topping it up but when people have to go to work in it e.t.c. it's gonna have to wait. Now we found oil in the water it's gonna be fixed sooner rather than later, or just sell the thing


Also the reason i ask how much for a new head is because my dad said that if it's upwards of 700 his just gonna sell the thing it's not worth spending that much money on because it hasn't been the perfect car to him and it chews fuel for a 4cyl.