Coolant leak! Help please

Driving along when a load of steam comes out the bay, temps shot up and has left a nice puddle on the floor, I'm no mechanic but the pipes in the bay seem fine, and the coolant appears to be running off the sump (I think)

And ideas or good places to start looking ?

Thanks in advance

NA or TT? If its NA, take a look behind the water pump/thermostat housing

there are some coolent pipe that go to the oil filter housing they maybe leaking , very hard to see though

I had 2 pin sized holes in 2 of my small coolant hoses. When I parked up and turned the engine off minutes later I've see and here the leak.

Possible that it's a just failed rad cap, they're notorious for going.

Cheers guys much appreciated , unfortunately no such luck, it's a core plug that's gone

Is it the one on the rear of the water pump?

Had this go on mine.

Cheers guys much appreciated , unfortunately no such luck, it's a core plug that's gone

Is it the one on the rear of the water pump?

Had this go on mine.

I am guessing it is, its a very common failure on the NA. The thermostat housing on the TT is different and doesn't suffer this same failure. It's not a hard job to do, just a bit time consuming. It may take you longer to get the crank pulley bolt off than it will to do the rest of the job if you don't have the tool to lock up the crank.

Cavitation erodes the core plug on the water pump backing plate on N/A's, they should always be changed when the cam belt is off for access. TT's have a different design and don't have the impeller agitation across the core plug.

If it's a block core plug that's gone it is often sensible to pull the engine and change them all, including the ones on the back of the block behind the flywheel. *ALWAYS* renew all core plugs when doing a rebuild.

It's one on the block nearest to the driver side I believe, it's with dave (supraloopey) and he'll be the one doing it, would like to replace them all but just spent the majority of my money on the bodywork due to the fact it seemed mechanically sound, and passed it's mot a week ago today just fine ,oh the irony. I'll be asking him to check the others if it's at all possible?

Thanks for explaining it I'll be sure to get the one on the water pump checked if I can

The only way to see if the others are OK is to knock `em out, then you HAVE to fit new ones. Doing some of them with the engine in is impossible. I have often wondered why no one has made stainless steel ones.

Oh right okay, thanks pretty much a complete novice when it comes the engines. Think it might have to be one of those things to get done when some money it put away just for peace of mind along with refreshing hoses and pipes ect. Dave said that he reckoned this one could be done without it being removed but if needs must then the engine will have to come out and all of them can be done at the same time. Yeah surely a stainless plug would be more durable, but wouldn't the exposure to coolant cause it to oxidise though? (Hope that's not a stupid comment)

The plugs are less than £3 each, it's the labour that's the big expense. No, I have never worked out a reason why you couldn't use a stainless plug. Your sink doesn't oxidise away, does it?

Very good point, after some sleep realised how stupid that comment was. From a bit of googling it would seem that it wouldn't be the greatest business investment due to the initial outlay (unsure how true of an outlay it would be as it would be dependant on scale) of making them and to remain price competitive, while trying to just break even on it? Especially when a part which can last 20 years already available in the market from the original manufacturer, which tends to generate a degree of brand loyalty with it's replacement products. On the flip side a member running a group buy would be very tempting as an alternative with far less overheads for them to need to reclaim keeping the cost down ?