hi all, can you help, i have a 2002 1.6l .Last couple weeks have noticed i have a small pool of water on the drivway on the drivers side. I've watching my fluid levels and its been fine, lost alittle over months but nothing much. Is it likely to be the AC which I havn't used for months ,just read in the Haynes book it should be used for at least 30 mins a month which i didnt know .Or the pollen filter which i'm not sure ive even got. The patch of fluid dosen't appear to have oli in it as it drys away if it dosen't rain.I've also noticed a slight drip of water in the car near the foot pedals, Any ideas

xev

Could be the air con, but thats more the passenger side I believe. more likely to be heater matrix related...

sorry i'm useless with cars .what exactly does that mean ?

xev

Heater matrix is just the fluid that carries the hot / co0ld water around the engine and to the blowers. Air con is the refrigerant that is used to cool the air.

no fluid loss its not the heater matrix and yes ac must be used for 30 mins a month to lube the seals if you dont it can cease up and be very very costly to fix 600 quid plus you sure it ain t just water from wet roads is it clear muddy coloured taste it

I would warn against tasting any liquid found under the car because if its from a coolant leak, it could be poisonous as Anti Freeze is TOXIC.

Recently I had some trouble with a coolant leak, which occasionally left a small puddle of liquid underneath the car where it had dripped from the thermostat housing then down onto the gearbox and finally dripping onto the concrete driveway. The small puddle was only about 3 inches across, so the amount of liquid lost was too small to notice a change to the level in the coolant reservoir. I could see that there was a pink tinge to it which gave an added clue to its origin.

I fixed my coolant leak by fitting new seals to the thermostat housing, replacing the thermostat seal first, which was quite easy, then after noticing there was still a leak, I replaced the seal between the engine block + thermostat housing, to do this I drained the engine coolant into a plastic container using the drain plug at the bottom of the radiator, then I removed the 3 bolts and gently pulled the thermostat housing with its pipework still connected and was able to remove the old seal + clean up the surfaces + fit new seal + carefully position thermostat housing back into position then refit 3 bolts.

NOTE: tightening the 3 bolts needs to be done with care as these bolts are going into the aluminium cylinder head and if overtightened could strip the threads in the cylinder head.

This appears to have fixed my coolant leak, no more puddles and engine coolant level not going down any more.

The water puddle is clear with No apparent colour. A friend suggesTed condensation.

Xev

coolant is toxic but is relatively harmless if its just a dab on the finger then spit it out but no colour rules that out anyway doesnt sound like much to me mate so i wouldnt worry