COOLANT coming out through starter motor

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wellingutd
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COOLANT coming out through starter motor

Post by wellingutd »

Little while ago car coolant was leaking out of the radiator from a cracked in the top, a new one was fitted. Less than 2 months later and 300 ish miles, driving and noticed my wife returning from short journey that the fan was staying on when switched off. I let it cool. Checked the coolant and the tank was empty.

Phoned garage to relook at it. Filled up the whole system and by time got to garage less than 2 miles away, most of system had emptied with water pouring it. Garage put it up on the ramp, and telling me that its getting to pressure but leaking significantly "into and out of the starter motor". Not good.

Any ideas? Assuming a cracked unit somewhere within the engine but have little to no knowledge in that area.
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Re: COOLANT coming out through starter motor

Post by Paul_13 »

The hose might be split which connects to the back of the block. From there it could be dripping down between the engine and gearbox.
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Re: COOLANT coming out through starter motor

Post by Phil Bate »

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wellingutd
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Re: COOLANT coming out through starter motor

Post by wellingutd »

Cheers gents, so sounds like it MIGHT be a cheap ish fix. Is it easy to get to? Any manuals as don't want to start pulling apart my engine.
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Re: COOLANT coming out through starter motor

Post by Ollie »

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Re: COOLANT coming out through starter motor

Post by Paul_13 »

wellingutd wrote:
Thu Nov 14, 2019 10:53 pm
Cheers gents, so sounds like it MIGHT be a cheap ish fix. Is it easy to get to? Any manuals as don't want to start pulling apart my engine.
As long as you haven't over heated it
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Re: COOLANT coming out through starter motor

Post by wellingutd »

It did overheat prior to radiator replacement also, if split hose, would it leak out when trying to fill the system?
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Re: COOLANT coming out through starter motor

Post by PeteH »

Finding a leaking hose isn't too difficult, particularly if the leak is a big as this one seems to be. Just fill it up and get underneath the car. All the hoses are fairly visible. If it's a hose near the top of the engine then you may have to fill it right up to make it leak. Fill it right up, then put the cap on, then ask a mate to squeeze one of the radiator hoses to generate a bit of pressure in the cooling system. You should then see it leaking from somewhere.

But a word of warning. These engines really don't like over-heating. If you drive them with no coolant then you are risking blowing the internal water seals, and that means a rebuild. Fingers crossed it's just a hose. But please don't drive it when it has a coolant leak, because you will rapidly make the problem a whole lot worse.

Out of interest, is the clutch behaving oddly (slipping or juddering)? If the water is pouring out of the starter motor then it can either be because it's falling onto the starter motor (in which case it's a hose), or it's coming out of the bell-housing (which would indicate a serious problem). If it was coming out of the bell housing then I'd expect you to have clutch problems.
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Re: COOLANT coming out through starter motor

Post by wellingutd »

No I don't have any clutch issues and I am really worried that I have driven it with little coolant. Even driving the couple of miles to garage I could trace my journey from the trail of coolant - not good.