Hi all, my first post on the forums, and hoping someone else may have come across my problem/have a solution!

A couple of months ago I noticed coolant coming out from under my 2006 1.8 tdci ZETEC. After investigation I discovered the problem, there was a short hose (approx 6" long, 1 1/2" diameter), tight into the front of the engine, which had a bubble on the outside of it. This bubble had burst, and coolant was leaking out. I managed to get hold of a replacement pipe, and struggled with it to get it fitted, as the 2 pipes it was connecting were very close together. I used the existing clips to lock it in place, refilled the coolant, and off I went.

A month later however, I noticed a few spots under the car, and after investigation found a bubble on the new hose, exactly in the same place as before. As only a small amount was leaking, I decided to take it to the mechanic I always use. He thought that I had possibly damaged the hose whilst fitting it, so he got a new one, stripped out the pipework to give better access, and fitted it, this time using jubilee clips to hold it in place. This was about 6 weeks ago.

My problem now is that this morning I again noticed some spots under the car, and after investigating it, discovered a bubble in the same place again!

The temperature gauge is always slightly under half way on the scale, but it does seem to take a long time to get there (I know this can be quite normal with diesels), and the heating at full heat is very very hot.

The timing belt was changed recently before the original fault occurred.

I have attached a couple of photos to show were the hose is.

Just bumping this up to see if anyone can help.

Thanks

Could the clamps be biting into the hose causing it to leak ? Or is the leak coming from somewhere else & simply materialising in the same place ? Was there any evidence of the replaced hoses being damaged ?

Hi there, thanks for the response.

The hose is bubbling in exactly the same place each time. I wondered about the clamps myself, and that's why I asked the mechanic I got to do the most recent change, to fit jubilee clips instead of the original spring type clips.

There is a small section of the engine block which is very close to where the bubble has occurred each time, so I wondered if it was heat damaging the rubber, as the outer laminate of the hose seems to separate from the inner, and reinforcement. If this is the case then it would have to be seriously hot!

If anyone is interested in this, the problem has been found!

A pipe to the injectors has a leak, which was only happening under pressure, so wasn't evident at tickover. This was causing diesel to leak down onto the rubber hose, causing damage to the hose over time!