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Water Loss


boilerman
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Hi all

I am having to put about 2 liters of water in the header tank each week lately, car is 03 rav4 diesel. There is no sign of leak anywhere, and car runs well.This morning with car cold from overnight, I undid the cap on header tank and there was quite a lot of pressure there, even though the car had not been run for about 20 hours.

Any thoughts.

Mike

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Don't worry too much about the pressure at this stage. The pressure limit is set by the cap whether or not there is a fault (in other words it can't get any higher than it does normally) and the speed at which it dissipates is determined by how good the pressure valve in the cap is.

So, to your leak. Does it smell strange inside the car or steam up unusually? This could indicate a leak in the heater rad. If you take the pulley side cover from under the engine (there is one panel stud at the back of the wheel arch and the rest are either tapping screws or set screws so just keep them in order - there is also 2 nuts and one set bolt holding the spat on). Look up the pulley side and see if you can spot if any coolant has come down from the water pump.

It needs resolving soon if it is leaking that much but I wouldn't think it is anything nasty like the head or head gasket as I have never heard of one going. Water pumps yes and if left could cause the timing belt to break so if you are not confident enough to do some digging, get it booked in to a garage asap. Don't tackle the water pump unless you really are competent and have a good selection of tools - you can get some idea of what you would be taking on if you look at my notes on the timing belt in the pinned section - and that is only part of the job!

:thumbsup:

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Hi,

have you tried to squeeze bottom hose from engine to radiator and see if its hard or you can feel bubling (air inside). Try to bleed system well and see how it will go. :thumbsup:

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Hi tateam

Thanks but there seems nothing wrong there, water in header tank just moves up and down as I squeeze. I'm putting a kettle full every other day now, with no sign of a leak anywhere. Car runs perfectly normal, no heater smell, temperature normal.

I was hoping as it got worse I might see something, but not yet.

mike

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No steam in the exhaust?

BTW don't forget you need to keep up the 50/50 mix of anti-freeze to keep the cooling system healthy.

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Hi,

so you cannot trace the missing water?? I had a similar problem and noticed that water was being purged out from the header tank and that wter was coming up & down as you said when I squeeze the hoses but still there was air in the sys. To solve it I parked my rav on ramp to let air goes upwards, removed hose supplying header tank, sqeezed engine hose to relief any trapped air and refilled through removed header hose.

Hope this will help and that you solve this problem as I did, it's quite a headake such a problem and cooling sys is no joke.

You can PM me if you need further help, :thumbsup:

regards,

James.

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Hi tateam

Sorry but that does not make sense. If I did have air in the system, why would I still need to put a kettle full of water in every other day ? The water is going somewhere.

Mike

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OH MY GOD !!

Just turned engine on and massive amount of air is bubbling back down the small hose that feeds radiator into header tank, when i undo filler I get a right gush.. Does this mean HEAD GASKET ??

Mike

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OH MY GOD !!

Just turned engine on and massive amount of air is bubbling back down the small hose that feeds radiator into header tank, when i undo filler I get a right gush.. Does this mean HEAD GASKET ??

Mike

I'd consider converting to a steam engine??

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It might. Time to get a garage involved.

Wheres Fred Dibna when you need him eh?

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Ok

Head gasket probably gone.

Anyone got detailed procedure to do the job, as £1500 seems a bit much.

Mike

03 Diesel 2 ltr, 60k.

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Hi

I think there is now a Haynes manual out which Amazon are selling for £15

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toyota-RAV4-Bob-Henderson/dp/1844257509/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282308447&sr=8-3

The best source of info is direct from Toyota, they sell online access to their technical website.

(available by hour, day etc)

http://www.toyota-tech.eu/

In the past I have found a hours access for a few Euro's is sufficient to download a massive amount of genuine factory workshop manual information. The negative is that each topic is split into many sections and each is a separate downloadable PDF. (There is not one great big single download as you would only use the site once !!)

Therefore, you need to be disciplined first download rapidly all the PDF's you need.(or are related and likely to need) Then after you download the data, you will find the files all have useless unintelligible names. So open each PDF read the contents, then rename and file to a suitable directory for future easy access.

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Hi

I think there is now a Haynes manual out which Amazon are selling for £15

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toyota-RAV4-Bob-Henderson/dp/1844257509/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282308447&sr=8-3

The best source of info is direct from Toyota, they sell online access to their technical website.

(available by hour, day etc)

http://www.toyota-tech.eu/

In the past I have found a hours access for a few Euro's is sufficient to download a massive amount of genuine factory workshop manual information. The negative is that each topic is split into many sections and each is a separate downloadable PDF. (There is not one great big single download as you would only use the site once !!)

Therefore, you need to be disciplined first download rapidly all the PDF's you need.(or are related and likely to need) Then after you download the data, you will find the files all have useless unintelligible names. So open each PDF read the contents, then rename and file to a suitable directory for future easy access.

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Thanks Ian

I think what I should have asked is, 'As anyone done a head gasket job on a 2 litre d4d' I think I am capable of doing it but would like a chat to someone who has actually done one.

Are there any special tools required, I have torque wrench and a good set of tools, but nothing Toyota specific.

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Its a big job Ian. The timing belt has to come off (have a read in the pinned section) which is a big job on its own. The pdf's aren't much good because they describe how to strip the head as well and I would only take off the bare minimum. Maybe this picture will help;

head.pdf

I agree that £1500 seems steep. Have a think and just have a phone around then decide.

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