I drove the car on an 80 mile round trip at the weekend, down M3, M25 then back again but instead of M3 cutting through A3 to the bottom of RIchmond Park where I hit traffic. So sat in it a few minutes not moving and glanced down to see my temp gauge move up to maximum!

I stopped the car immediately. Bonnet up and checked the car over, no water under the bonnet just a little bit of steam coming out the plastic chamber to the right of the rad.

A ten minute round trip walking to the nearest shop and returning with some water I topped up the rad, it took about 1200ml before filling. I then popped the heater up to max started up the car. The water lifted a cm or two to the top of the rad tube but wasnt overflowing. So I popped the cap back on and drove the remaining 5 minutes home.

Let the car cool down for a few hours, then went out with a mate and we looked all over the pipework as best we could as it was dark, we found a possible candidate for leaking but it doesn't look bad enough to have lost me a litre of water. We took the car for a run, the temp gauge went up to half as normal and stayed there on the move. We then stopped at some traffic lights for a minute or two and it stayed in the middle. I drove the car home and left it running outside the house for about 5 minutes, temp gauge went up a little bit but not more than say 6/10ths up. The fans kicked in at this point. We couldnt see any water on the undertrays.

I have had to top up the charge cooler twice in the last 12 months, literally about 50ml but hadn't checked the front rad.

Any views? Is it a perishing pipe you think? How do I check the water pump?

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"Have to say this is one of the nicest ST205's I have ever seen. Certainly the nicest I have seen in a long while" Mr Sirius, South Coast Workshop & general all round nice bloke

Sounds most like an intermittent fan problem but could be gradual coolant loss over time. The probability is that much of the water loss would be when the engine is overheating and boiling the water, blowing it out as steam.

Keep an eye on coolant level frequently to help diagnosis. Also, see if the heater starts blowing cold instead of hot when the engine starts overheating as this indicates water circulation has stopped - running the heater on full also helps keep the engine cooler if stuck in traffic.

Avoid topping up with tap water. Ideally use pre-mix coolant, or if you buy concentrate use de-ionised water with it.

Look for tell-tale antifreeze stains. Water pumps usually start leaking out from an exit hole just below the alternator & above the aircon pump. Most likely is water pump or radiator.

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If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

Thanks thats a great post. I have Toyota Red coolant pre-mix for the charge cooler, but yes will get some for the rad (or can I use the same stuff?)

Was going to start the car today as I am working at home and just leave it running and check in on the temps and see if anything comes out (leave some cardboard under the car) and check on the fans. I think I will order two new coolant hoses for the car in any case as they are only about £40 for some Stoney ones (Samco are about a hundred quid) and there has definitely been a fix on one of the pipes.

Strange thing is I am very OCD about my cars and probably look at the dash gauges once every couple of minutes when driving and never noticed the temp go above half even in a heatwave in summer sat in traffic.

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"Have to say this is one of the nicest ST205's I have ever seen. Certainly the nicest I have seen in a long while" Mr Sirius, South Coast Workshop & general all round nice bloke

If it hasn't been mentioned also check the expansion tank level and top up to the required point. If you were low on coolant after a small leak it could have sucked up air into the system during the previous cool down.

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JP
GT4DC Treasurer

Grey St185 RC
Silver BMW E46 M3
Multicolour yawn Honda VFR400
Silver Honda Civic Type-R

I presume to check the expansion bottle you literally look at the amount of water on the pipe? As it is the bottle under the batter I presume which is impossible to get a look at from where it is situated?

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"Have to say this is one of the nicest ST205's I have ever seen. Certainly the nicest I have seen in a long while" Mr Sirius, South Coast Workshop & general all round nice bloke

Found the area of the problem. Filled up with coolant and left it running for about 30 mins. Then saw the puddle of red settling in the undertray located below the alternator (imagine drawing a line straight down from under the alternator area).There looks like there are some old pipes down there, I am hoping its an old pipe? Or is it likely to be a water pump leaking? I guess its a case of trying to get it up in the air and taking a look?

I will grab some pictures in the morning when its light.

Out of interest, what is involved in a water pump change? Expensive?

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"Have to say this is one of the nicest ST205's I have ever seen. Certainly the nicest I have seen in a long while" Mr Sirius, South Coast Workshop & general all round nice bloke

Damn, it rained, but effectively the puddle was gathering just under here in the undertray

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"Have to say this is one of the nicest ST205's I have ever seen. Certainly the nicest I have seen in a long while" Mr Sirius, South Coast Workshop & general all round nice bloke

Start with the simpler stuff first - It might be the lower rad hose weeping, or one of the hoses on the oil cooler on the front of the block. Take the undertray off, leave it running & take a look.

Changing the waterpump is fairly large job - Need to remove the alternator, side engine mount, all belts, crank pulley, cambelt etc, but it can be done over a weekend. Best to combine it with a cambelt/tensioner/pulleys change.

If you do change it, be sure to get the correct ST205 OEM one, see this thread I made a while ago on another forum:
http://www.mr2oc.com/61-3sgte-turbo/570 ... ences.html

There are 2 hoses to the oil cooler, known as 'hoses from hell' on a 185, but slightly easier access on a 205. These are specially shaped hoses, available from TCB among others. It could also be lower radiator hose or water pump.

As above, water pump is driven by the cambelt, and sadly it is behind the lower cam belt cover so requires the crank pulley removing to get access. The worst bit is that one of the bolts is a cross head countersunk and with the limited access can take some getting undone. Worth replacing with a hex or torx one.

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If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

Thanks guys. I am not a technical guy at all so wouldnt even know what an oil cooler looks like! Any photos people can point me at. I have a more technically minded mate coming over on Sunday morning and going to jack up the car and see if there is anything obvious in terms of a leak. I am hoping its something obvious, I got a quote from a garage who work on GT4s and have been told worst case scenario its £480 plus parts!

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"Have to say this is one of the nicest ST205's I have ever seen. Certainly the nicest I have seen in a long while" Mr Sirius, South Coast Workshop & general all round nice bloke

I've responded on facebook and provided a long list of possible candidates as you had added the pics there first.

Having recently suffered a similar issue (self-inflicted) I've been through the loop on this one and the comments from the guys above are spot on as always!

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JP
GT4DC Treasurer

Grey St185 RC
Silver BMW E46 M3
Multicolour yawn Honda VFR400
Silver Honda Civic Type-R

Thanks there have been some really good comments and all appreciated. I am going to try and get the undertrays off on Saturday then when its dry on sunday have a look. I hope I can tick off as much as possible before somehow getting it to a reliable garage. Only one I have used previously is South Coast Workshop down in Portsmouth but that is a bit of a road trip and don't fancy paying £200 just to get it taken down there. So not sure what I am going to do if its not something simple yet...

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"Have to say this is one of the nicest ST205's I have ever seen. Certainly the nicest I have seen in a long while" Mr Sirius, South Coast Workshop & general all round nice bloke

Well it seems problem solved. Got the car up in the air (well on a jack) undertrays off and noted that there was some dried out coolant on one spot of the tray and some around one of the silicone hoses at the bottom of the rad. A quick check of the clamp had it literally spinning around the hose and basically doing nothing to hold it on. Also again lots of evidence of coolant powder on the clamp and end of the hose. Took 10 and a half turns of the ratchet to secure the clamp properly. Drove the car 60 miles just now and nothing no problems at all. Car is nicely topped up with Toyotas very finest red and fingers crossed it was just that leaking over time...

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"Have to say this is one of the nicest ST205's I have ever seen. Certainly the nicest I have seen in a long while" Mr Sirius, South Coast Workshop & general all round nice bloke

Sounds like someone forgot to do the clamp up after a radiator off or coolant draining operation.

At least it's sorted.

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If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

Yep seems that way. Will keep an eye on fluid levels etc. Might run the car outside for 30 mins and see if anything else turns up. But fingers crossed its ok. I checked the receipts of previous owner and he had cambelt/waterpump etc. all done about 10k miles ago.

I am off on a Euro roadtrip in July so will do all the belts again (as they were done in 2010!) - looking online saw that you can get various options from just the belt to including the tensioner, do I need that?

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"Have to say this is one of the nicest ST205's I have ever seen. Certainly the nicest I have seen in a long while" Mr Sirius, South Coast Workshop & general all round nice bloke