Would say unlikely, These cars have a very complex cooling system, and a leak could have started somewhere,

Top her up, get her warmed up then have a bloody good look all round, try and see if you can see a drip or signs of coolant loss. Remember you will need to check the car from front to rear.

May be worth getting hubby to be to get the engine inspection hatch off and have a look from the top, as its easier to see the pipes from there.

 

If you are running abit steamy rather then smokey could be a weap in the inlet manifold gasket dumping some coolant into the cylinders. Take the plugs out and have a look will give you an idea of if water is getting into any of them. This tends to be a problem with mk1 fs with the plastic inlet manifold. Far too early to suspect hgf yet me thinks !

 

Worth mentioning that steam coming from the exhaust is normal while the engine is warming up. More visble in winter, but you still see it in summer.

 

Where are you filling the coolant to?

If you overfill then it will eject the extra coolant.

Also it isn't unknown for the system to find it's own level. Does the coolant drop to a certain level but no further? Aparently this is quite normal. You will see the coolant is a bit low so you will top it up, the coolant will then drop to it's own level again. This gives the impression that it is always dropping but it isn't.

Be careful but just leave it that little bit longer and see if it keeps dropping or whether it stops by itself.

 

Also it isn't unknown for the system to find it's own level. Does the coolant drop to a certain level but no further? Aparently this is quite normal. You will see the coolant is a bit low so you will top it up, the coolant will then drop to it's own level again. This gives the impression that it is always dropping but it isn't.

Be careful but just leave it that little bit longer and see if it keeps dropping or whether it stops by itself.

Quite true mate well put. I totally agree with the finding its own level thing too. Mine used to drop to the minimum mark and no further.

Mine seems to linger around the very bottom, which made me nervous somewhat :/ Always have a bottle of fluids in the boot!

If you find yourself in the Southport area i will happily have a look at it for you.

That'd be wonderful I need to visit a friend in Liverpool to talk weddings sooon. Good to see you Clarkson, thank you

I'd add that it's important to find out what caused the old Cat to fail before replacing it. Otherwise the new one could fail too.

I think the old cat may have died of old age the chap who did the MOT said all the fibre (?) inside had corroded away... he described it as an old age thing because it looks like it's been on the car for a long time? I'm not too sure if that's actually the case though :/

 

If you find yourself in the Southport area i will happily have a look at it for you.

 

It may well be worth investing in a new water pump. I was advised by a rover expert that the water pump is more than often the stem of alot of the HGF problems etc. we get with these engines. My timing belt is being done soon so i'm just going to replace the water pump while i'm at it. Prevention is better than a cure.

 

I'd add that it's important to find out what caused the old Cat to fail before replacing it. Otherwise the new one could fail too.

 

Helllooooo alll!!

Thank you so much for advice. I have to say you've made me feel a lot better about little Miss Nell...

I think I may have over filled her when I first got her and my hubbie to be may have done it a second time, thanks to the wonderful minds on here, I realised before the next time to fill up was upon us!

This morning I've gone out to fill her up again and we're running her now to see if we can spot any leaks in a few minutes. I've got to potter out to drop my undercover car back at my Uncle's so I'll get some updates on here as soon as I have them!

Thank you again for being so utterly wonderful folks You are the reason as to why I'm hopelessly addicted to this site!

 

Don't know if you already know but if you look inside the expansion tank, it has 2 plastic notches nearest the boot. You should be able to see the top one (Max level) but not the bottom one (Min level). Anything above max level will probably get ejected by the system.

 

Aaah.... when you say ejected by the system... in a bad way?

 

Hehe.... sorry folks, got collared into duty bound house work as soon as I got back. My bit of Yorkshire was practically stood there donning an apron and swinging a rolling pin from hand to hand.... mind you I may have said, "I'm just nipping out for a bit" and clearly went for a jolly saunter!! :naughty:

Well, I've had her running for a wee while and we still can't see a leak. I've took her for a 'little' run (Macclesfield to Northwich) and she seems fine, no over heating that I can see on any dials either. Took it easy, no over revving etc and she cruised round the country lanes as she always has.

One new thing though (may just not have noticed this before) when I got out, locked up for a bit, the fans were still going for a few minutes after I'd locked her up... is that normal?

 

Hehe.... sorry folks, got collared into duty bound house work as soon as I got back. My bit of Yorkshire was practically stood there donning an apron and swinging a rolling pin from hand to hand.... mind you I may have said, "I'm just nipping out for a bit" and clearly went for a jolly saunter!! :naughty:

Well, I've had her running for a wee while and we still can't see a leak. I've took her for a 'little' run (Macclesfield to Northwich) and she seems fine, no over heating that I can see on any dials either. Took it easy, no over revving etc and she cruised round the country lanes as she always has.

One new thing though (may just not have noticed this before) when I got out, locked up for a bit, the fans were still going for a few minutes after I'd locked her up... is that normal?

Yep, the radiator fan at the front will run on idle and the engine bay fan will run when the ignition is off.

Let the car cool and check the fluid levels again.

It is usual for a new MGF/TF owner to worry about HGF - we have all been there! We read so much about it on this forum that we convince ourselves that it is happening to us. Some poor souls do experience HGF, but for many more it is purely a false alarm.

Some good threads to read, incase you have not seen them -

http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=243523

http://www.mgfcar.de/thermostat/1999November_therrmostat.pdf


PS - He can't be a proper Yorkshireman in a pinny..!!

 

Thank you again Paul, and all who've helped on this thread. I'm being summoned to do more house work so I shall see you all very soon Thank you muchos again

-Helen

 

Haha, of course he can still be a man with a pinny
Picture proves all and it's not that far from the truth either

Have made him dinner so he's occupied for a wee while longer. His birthday's coming up too so that picture has also inspired me for future gifts.... :lol:

 

Have made him dinner so he's occupied for a wee while longer. His birthday's coming up too so that picture has also inspired me for future gifts.... :lol:

Some pre packed meat?

 

I have noticed our fans coming on more and staying on longer, suppose its logical as the weather gets warmer the cooling system will have to work harder.

 

That was where my logic lay too but, as a newbie to the wonderful world of MGFers, I felt safe asking for your opinions on such matters and now feel much better.

I've since checked the coolant and it's not budged after a good hour of driving there and back so I'm happy I was just being a little nervous I think I also drown out a lot of the noise with music sometimes... as I don't always got out of the car straight away (like to say night night and all :lol so that's also why I may not have noticed before

Panic averted! Merci Buckets folks