First post.

2009 1.4 BXW with 70000 miles.

I have a coolant leek from somewhere at the back of the engine. It is wet on the underside of the inlet manifold from where it drips down to the ground.

I have just done 1200 miles on holiday and I had to top it up three times from min to max. The engine never missed a beat and is still running fine.

I know  it's possible that it could be the head gasket but is there anywhere else it could be coming from?

I have done all the usual visual checks for gasket failure but I appreciate that it could still be the problem.

 

Regards

 

 

 

 

 

Very much more likely to be one or other of these coolant pipe/hose joints:

 

O-ring seal in left hand circle between thermostat housing and plastic coolant pipe, flexible hose connection to the right of middle, and another o-ring seal on the far end of the rigid pipe into the water pump. 

If the thermostat housing has never been off, I think my top suspect would be the middle one, the connection to a flexible hose, not too sure where that goes to. A USB inspection camera may get in there and tell you exactly where it's originating.

All the relevant parts/part numbers are shown here: coolant pump; coolant hoses and pipes; reservoir - Roomster(RO) [EUROPA 2009 year] (7zap.com) (view on computer, not phone to see all info).

It seems the flexible pipe connection is from the expansion tank.

Edited 11 July, 20223 yr by Breezy_Pete
swapped in correct link for Roomster, was Fabia

Thanks for the quick reply.

There has been a slight leek for sometime but it was so minimal I just lived with it.

Just before my holiday I had a new cam belt and water pump fitted.

Could this have disturbed the o'ring where you have circled it on the left?

If the waterpump o-ring (item 23 in diagram) was not renewed/replaced when the new water pump was fitted, I'd say it's almost certainly that one that's leaking.

Sorry should have said on the right.

If it's got worse since the waterpump was changed, I think I'd be asking the garage that changed it to have another look. It's not unknown for a new waterpump to leak out of the box, or it way not have seated correctly when they fitted it. 

To fit a new one, the water pump either has to come off again, which would be a pain I imagine, or I think the thermostat housing has to come off, which in turn has an o-ring sealing it to the engine head (not shown on that diagram) which would  then need replacing. 

Thanks again for the replies.

The garage only uses genuine parts and have done all the cars cam belt and water pump changes.

They were Skoda dealers for years but are now independent.

I will get them to have a look at it.

Sounds like they should sort it for you, possibly even free of charge. 

Just a quick update.

 

Car went to garage where they pressure tested the cooling system. There was coolant dripping from the inlet manifold but they couldn't see where from.

Removed the manifold and found the item in the picture had opened up along a glued seem.

Seems to be some sort of device for heating the inlet manifold using the hot coolant.

Garage (ex Skoda dealership) said they had never changed one before.

 

Anyway thanks for the advice.

 

 

 

Is there a part number for that bit on your invoice? 

Good on you for coming back with the solution to the problem.  👍 

Sorry meant to put this on the original post.

 

036121188B

 

Regards

On 03/08/2022 at 09:27, Wilts said:

Just a quick update.

 

Car went to garage where they pressure tested the cooling system. There was coolant dripping from the inlet manifold but they couldn't see where from.

Removed the manifold and found the item in the picture had opened up along a glued seem.

Seems to be some sort of device for heating the inlet manifold using the hot coolant.

Garage (ex Skoda dealership) said they had never changed one before.

 

Anyway thanks for the advice.

 

 

 

My daughter has the BXW engine and when she had  the same coolant loss I searched with the engine code.

Quite a few people in forums said that the BXW is prone to just this manifold preheater braking. Our local independent had seen a few.

The garage owner where they did the job said they had never changed one before.

They were a Skoda dealer for years but have gone independent.

 Just pot luck I suppose.

 

Phil