Loosing water & boost problem

[PF]

Im loosing water but it cant see where its going. Im constantly topping it up and last weekend I drained the entire system and started again. I checked all the visible hoses and they are all good. Twenty miles later and the levels are dropping again. The fans come on frequently and sometimes stay on but the water temp guage never goes over half way (apart from once when there was hardly any water left). I cant see any water being left on my drive etc.

Not head gasket as there is no white gunk under the oil cap.

Also when taking the car over 3.5k revs the car shakes and makes a "brrrrrr" noise. Hard to explain it but kind of like someones strangling the car. Its making full boost and pulls quite well but something is clearly not right. No smoke or any other side affects to speak of.

The two must be interlinked because just after draining and re-filling with coolant last weekend I took the car out and it was great. Alas, it did not last.

Any ideas?

 

[creedy]

Any white smoke from exhaust?

 

[Animaldaz]

It could still be the head gasket, you only get the mayo when the oil and water mix, it may have gone and be laeking into the cylinder(s) and being burned off, thats why your not seeing any patches of coolant on the floor, and it may explain your running problem. Also make sure your rad caps working as it should.

 

[PF]

Theres no white smoke Creedy. Its a head scratcher as there are no tale tale signs and certainly nothing obvious (to me anyway).

Might follow up the headgasket avenue. Whats the process of checking? Is it something someone with basic knowledge of car mechanics/maintanance can do?

 

[creedy]

if theres no white smoke or mayo its not your head gasket.... u could have a little crack in a pipe (main ones behind engine) which would mean leaking when running but not when stopped

listen out for whisling sounds once you have turned engine of or even when running.

i had a similer problem a few years ago with a small crack in the pipe.

 

[STU13 B]

Not sure about the water loss, but as for the heistaion has it got a full stainless with de-cat? If not maybe the cat has collapsed? It happed on my old S14a felt like someone had put there hand over the exhaust everytime i tryed 2 boot it.

 

[EVOBAD]

hav u looked in to spark plugs a mate of mine had a problem which sounds like yours plug number 1 was full of oil on full boost ok when taking it easy it ran like a bag of shhhhhhhhit

 

[Fusion Ed]

Dont rule out headgasket. I have had this several times on non pulsar cars before. One option is to do a colour check test and see weather the coolent water contains any exhaust gasses. If so the the head gasket has gone. You'll only usually get mayo if the water mixes with oil which doesn't always happen.

 

[PF]

Car has been de-catted so thats another possibility off the list. The coolant is a bit mucky, like a dirty grey colour. Is that the sort of thing you mean Ed?

 

[Fast Guy]

It could be one of the rubber hoses on the back of the engine. Some of them aren't too easy to notice when they're leaking. Last year I had one of the oil cooler water hoses go and one of the heater hoses go. Heater hose wouldn't leak until you moved it, that dripped off the back of the gearbox on the passenger side and the cooler hose driped onto the downpipe near the oil filter. I also had the bottom rad hose go, but that was easy to notice when it was squirting out of the bonnet vent:lol:

 

[PF]

Done a compression test during the week and everything appears to be ok. Bleed the coolant system again and the water loss has stopped, or at the very least slowed right down. Also fitted a new set of plugs which has cured the nasty misfire when on boost and the car really does get a shift on now. One of the tips on the previous set of plugs had been eaten away at, and the gap was way to big.

But now the car has a misfire lower down the rev range when crusing (off boost) and the abs light on the dash is stuck on.

 

[rx jamie]

take your battery terminals of for an hour or so first to reset your ecu and see if that cures it.
as for the abs problem check your abs sensors and wires are ok.

my parteners saxo had the abs sensor light on and when i checked.... one of the shafts was off a non abs saxo and didnt have the abs ring on. not your problem but thought id mention it lol