My daughter got a ford focus 1.6tdci 2012 mk3 she is losing lots of coolant it seems to be coming out from middle of car by bulk head. Checked the heater pipes going into bulk head and they seem dry. Garage couldn't find any pipes that were wet. Carpet seems to be dry as well when filling water bottle up it just drips out on to the ground . Any help would be great

53 minutes ago, Lloyd69 said:

losing lots of coolant it seems to be coming out from middle of car by bulk head.

How much are we talking ?

When you refill the coolant expansion tank is more than 1 litre ?

EGR cooler would be my first thought.

These do occasionally crack the head though, then the coolant comes out past the headgasket.

Just dealing with similar sounding issue on my son's 1.6 tdci 2013 model, which he also just acquired in the last few weeks. I found the leak was on the egr cooler itself. Unfortunately it's on the inside (between the cooler and the engine) - I was only able to isolate it precisely because I used a borescope camera. I was hoping I could nip the screws up; but the bottom one will be impossible to get to. If you're very fortunate maybe you have a leak on the other side and could nip them up!  Seems now that I will need to take the egr cooler out. It's a bit of an awkward job unfortunately. Not sure if this info helps you at all, but there you go!

Anyone reading this who has any tips, I'd be glad to hear them. Yet to tackle this job. For now the leak isn't too bad but it will need doing before the next MOT, so I am holding off. Have yet to find a good youtube video for replacing the egr cooler on this model. That would be useful.

additional info for anyone looking at the replacing the EGR Cooler, my son did buy a Haynes manual and the section for the EGR cooler lists the steps as follows for some sense of the scope of the job:

Quote

 

• Remove the wiper arms and windscreen cowl panel 
• Remove the air filter housing and the battery
• Anticipating some fuel spillage, remove the fuel lines from the fuel filter and from the rear of the cylinder head
• Disconnect the wiring plugs from the fuel injectors, the fuel pressure sensor, the EGR control valve and the fuel filter. Release the wiring loom from the various cable clips and then move the loom to the side.
• Unplug the vacuum lines from the control valve at the rear of the cylinder head.
• Drain the coolant and then disconnect the coolant hoses from the EGR cooler. Anticipate some coolant spillage.
• Unbolt the EGR pipe from inlet pipe and then remove the remove the 4 mounting bolts and single nut. Withdraw the cooler from the engine and recover the gaskets.

 

 

Haynes seem to enjoy wasting time and disturbing plug & pipework connections unnecessarily.  I wouldn't touch half of that.  But admittedly haven't done this job on a Mk3.  I did do it on a Mk2, which was fairly similar but not exactly the same.

thanks that's good to know. Just looking at it I would say you're probably right. I was questioning how much benefit to removing some of this. Haynes manual not what it used to be from what I can tell. I think competition from youTube videos has made them a little less relevant.

On 6/20/2025 at 10:57 PM, Lloyd69 said:

My daughter got a ford focus 1.6tdci 2012 mk3 she is losing lots of coolant it seems to be coming out from middle of car by bulk head. Checked the heater pipes going into bulk head and they seem dry. Garage couldn't find any pipes that were wet. Carpet seems to be dry as well when filling water bottle up it just drips out on to the ground . Any help would be great

Had to put in few litre of water in as it is being poured in you can see it dripping out under the car beneath the bulk head. Think one me the pipes going into the car is leaking going to try check between firewall and bulk head. Going to try and change the metal pipes that run through the bulk head.