Water Leak !

[freshtea]

Hi

I have a strange one./ Water is leaking on the floor of the passenger side of my 316i

The water is hot, so I topped up the radiator which seems to have stopped it.

But why is water leaking from behind the glove compartment.

My car now smells like a granny's bedroom [???1]

 

[mjbst111]

probably your heater core. There's supposed to be a ctach pan that routes the leaking coolant through the firewall to the enigine bay to spill out on the street but it doesn't always catch everything. See if the aformentioned spout is kicking out any coolant.

I assume the "water" is green.

 

[freshtea]

The water is a pretty much clear, maybe a brown tinge to it, but that might be dirt

How exactly do I look at the catch pan. can I get to it from under the glove compartment or do I go through the engine bay. have you got any nice diagrams

 

[mjbst111]

you can see all of this from the inside of the car, it is undr the middle of the dashboard.

I don't have any documentation, you might want to pick up a bently manual somewhere, or maybe someone with one will chime in.

 

[epj3]

Question - Do you guys drive on the right side of the road like the US, or the left side like the UK? If so, your clutch hydraulisc (if it's manual) and brake linkage is there. In my opinion, you have a leaky hydraulic line somewhere, and its making its way down to your floor.

Wouldn't explain the granny smell though. Granny smell that I'm used to smells like moth balls. I guess granny's smell different in other countries!

 

[mjbst111]

you bring up a good point. it'd be easy to check if any of that was missing. There isn't a ton to go around in the first place.

definitely moth balls.

 

[freshtea]

Thanks guys.

Had a chat with a mechanic, he says it's most likely a leaking heater core and that I can get coolant blocking tablets. He said it's a bit like the old fried eye trick for the radiator.

Any comment on that one..

a

ps_we drive on the left

 

[E30m42cab]

Definately try the tablets first. I've used them on three different cars, and they've worked beautifully. A friend of mine gets them for me from a friend of his who works at GM. He says they drop two "terds" into the rad at the end of the assembly line to stop any leaks on the new cars. You can also get some "stop leak" form your local parts store... it comes in a plastic bottle that you shake and dump into rad. It's got little "terds" of aluminum that repair any crack in the rad etc. The only problem is that it won't repair leaks in hoses, o-rings, or plastic fittings. However, it's a cheap enough way to start out and your chances are good that it'll work. The stuff you buy in the bottle also helps lubricate your water pump.

good luck!