So drove off drive the other day and engine coolant light came on..  checked the coolant tank and could see it was low... topped it up and light didn't come back on but now its been bought to my attention I've noticed a puddle under front passenger side of engine when the car has been sitting overnight or even for 2 to 4 hours. I took it too my pal at his garage... he had the torch and mirror out but couldn't find where it was coming from... its booked in on Monday for a further inspection... anyone had similar problem????.. I'm praying it's a small fix 🙏

that could he from anywhere tbh... 

i had a pinhole leak in the radiator of my last car (inshi7nia) that 3 mechanics and i, including a main dealer, failed to find for aaaages. it was big enough to let the coolant out, but it mostly evaporated away quick enough to be near impossible to spot. 

it could be the coolant header tank too, have been known to split.

or any of the many hoses in the system. or your water pump if its been a while since last change..

Water pump was changed less than 5k ago so I'm thinking that should be okay... like you say it could be from so many places I guess I'm just gonna have to wait to find out... I'm just a bit of a worrier... I have to use it tomorrow but I'm gonna park it up then until Monday just incase anything else goes wrong... I love this car but its more temperamental than my Mrs and that's saying something! 🤣.. thanks for reply 

It is possible that it is from the plastic housing that the coolant sender sits in, they do fail from old age from time to time.

 

The best plan as has been said is to get a pressure test of the system, which should show it's origin.

 

Hope it helps, good luck.

 

Phil beat me to the punch. For the passenger side I would say the CTS housing.

 

Example of mine-

 

Thanks Phil... that's something I never thought of and yeh hopefully the pressure test pin points the issue 🤞🤞

And thanks Dean for pics... that does seem like a likely suspect !!.. fingers crossed its as easy fix🤞... il update you guys Monday when I know more 👍

Bit of an update before I go garage Monday but engine seems to be getting hotter than normal.. I drove home from work.. parked it up and got in it 2 hours later and temp needle was a quarter way to half up still is that normal???? I don't know if I'm being paranoid now because of coolant issue but I've parked her up and won't be using now till Monday anyway... #itneverrainsitabsolutelyhammersdown

meh, depending on the weather and where the car is parked up it could easily still be "half hot" after a couple of hours.

 

when my insignia was losinh coolant i could watch it steaming out from the bonnet shut lines when i was sitting in traffic sometimes. i always kept it topped up until we found the source and it was grand. that engine was just terrible in a hundred ways anyway, but had no bad incidents during the hunting... driving around with 2 gallons of coolant in the boot at all times for a couple of weeks was nerve racking though...

I suppose the obvious thing to ask is are you keeping the level topped up while you are waiting for your garage consult?

 

If you are, it could be the sender airlocking because the housing is leaking.

 

Really need a bit more info really to be more helpful.

 

I am keeping it topped up ... sometimes it seems to lose more fluid than others on the same journey tho... its strange... and possibly there is a airlock ... I just don't know about diagnosing it... I can lay bricks till the cows come home but ask me to change a air filter and I'd be watching YouTube videos... not the most mechanically minded... it just seems to be getting very hot upfront but as I say I could just be being paranoid.... thank you for feedback.

You can see where the water is accumulating...

I really should learn to stop trying to self diagnose on Google... My biggest concern now dare I say it is head gasket but there's no white smoke.. no milky residue and it drives fine plus I haven't heard many gaskets blown from these engines so again let's hope I'm just being a paranoid Pete!!!

Same place mine was. So it’s going to being around the housing somewhere.

That puts my mind at rest a bit..  thanks Dean 👍

Yep, I'll second Dean on that one.

 

Mine did the same, had a crack nearly 8 mm long in the casing