Focust - Slow Coolant loss

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Fri 28 Dec 2012 22:28
Focust - Slow Coolant loss - drogers

Focus hatch a 1.8 petrol january 2008 57plate Mk2 done 22500 miles from new one owner

over a period of time the coolant level drops from max to clearly below min level on expansion tank, and I have to top it every 3-4 months, Ford dealer did pressure test showed no leak.

I wondered if anyone else has this, or is it a normal feature of this vehicle ?.

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Sat 29 Dec 2012 00:27
Focust - Slow Coolant loss - jibblerat
I had a similar problem on a ford fiesta. Check that the expansion cap's seal is in good order. I had an escape from this at running temperature. Also, look closely around pipe unions and the radiator for traces of white powdery deposit: this could indicate where the leak is.

I have heard an egg placed into the cooling system can seal a small leak, but personally I'd use radweld :)

Outside chance of a leaky head gasket. Keep an eye on your oil. If its brown and milky, then you have problems. That's worst case scenario, and with the miles and year of the car, very unlikely. This should have been picked up at the pressure test. Just a thought.

Hope this is useful :)
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Wed 2 Jan 2013 15:46
Focust - Slow Coolant loss - Simoncelli58

My Brother in laws done this.

It was leaking from the bottom hose on the expansion bottle, no amount of tightning or cleaning would fix it.

He even cut an inch of hose off to get a better seal to no avail.

A new expansion bottle fixed the problem.

His Garage told him it was quite common !

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Sat 5 Jan 2013 15:48
Focust - Slow Coolant loss - Cyd

Interesting about the expansion bottle - any more details about the exact nature of the fault?

Some makes expansion bottles had a problem where the plastic around the filler cap would crack. They were very fine cracks but the system would eventually lose pressure. Is this problem similar but on the outlet instead?

BTW: the egg in the coolant works - Mythbusters tested it. Stopped a leak from a 2mm hole in a rad in less than a minute!

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Sat 5 Jan 2013 12:23
Focust - Slow Coolant loss - Singlish

I have exactly the same problem with my June 07 1.8 Petrol Focus which started when the car was 4 years old, the 'problem' does not seem to be getting any worse, my feeling is there must be a slight leak somewhere but I have been warned off using Radweld type products in a modern engine.

It would be interesting to know if other owners of 1.8 or 2.0 litre focus have a similar problem

SINGLISH

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Tue 8 Jan 2013 19:02
Focust - Slow Coolant loss - Simoncelli58

Look where the bottom hose attaches to the coolant bottle.

There should be tell tale signs of pink dye from the coolant if its leaking from there.

His bottle also had hairline cracks where the hose joined !

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Fri 11 Jan 2013 00:19
Focust - Slow Coolant loss - mrdanger

i had this on a focus 1.6, it turned out to be the heater matrix leaking <damp footwell>

beware though i ended up with a car fire when somthing shorted from the leak !

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