Coolant loss

[Tineca]

Hello all. My 2011 d5 seems to lose around half a pint of coolant over a two week period. No other symptoms and no codes showing. No water in oil etc. Any ideas?

[S60D5-185]

I seem to remember something about an aluminium pipe at the rear of the cylinder head which is known to let go.

Do a search and I'll also see if I can find it.👍


Look here

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showt...aluminium+pipe

[gmonag]

Check the coolant for hydrocarbons (head gasket leak). There is a test kit or sometimes you can smell it.

[XJSDriver]

Hopefully not the head gasket but a leak elsewhere - as gmonag says could be the aluminium pipe or might be the radiator itself has been holed.
I read in another post where a chap put a/c dye in the water and then used an ultraviolet torch to find the leak which might be worth a shot if you are still struggling to find the leak after making basic checks.

[Tineca]

Thanks guys. Hope it's not the HG. I will take it to my volvo guy in a bit when it's due for its service. Hopefully it will just be a pipe.that aluminium pipe thread looks really helpful thanks

[S60D5-185]

I would be very very surprised if it's the headgasket.

Extremely rare on a D5.

[Danielpsmith]

I’ve read on another post he was losing coolant and was mixing with the gearbox oil, the cooler is on the side of the radiator, hopefully not but another option.

[Tineca]

I have had 3 d5s mainly with galactic miles and never had a HG go. Some of the courtesy cars he lends me are absolute old bangers with battered bodywork etc and up to 500k miles but still sound fab. Love the d5

[john langrick]

Hi, my tale of woe included what I thought was the head gasket but was a cracked head.

I also the rad leaking into gearbox oil and that resulted in a new rad. It could be additional pressure from above forced the seals in the intercooler.

Mine is 03 and I won't go into the expense but sorted now.

Mine was most definitely exhaust gas entering the coolant and forcing water out of the expansion tank. the tester discussed earlier showed this very clearly. They are very cheap and in my case effective.

The other symptom was air bubbling into the expansion tank, even at tickover, engine cool and expansion tank cap removed.

In my case using the UV dye showed signature all around expansion tank and below.

Hope yours not so drastic!

John l

[harveys]

The radiator header tanks plastic ones each end of where they crimp onto the core can leak over time .have a good look around the engine bay .
You should be able to find it with such a large loss.
You could get a garage to do a coolant system pressure test which would more than likely find it.
which is a easy to do.