A leak but not where you would expect it

[kawasaki kid]

Finally stumbled across a very small leak that has been mystifiying me for a while - over the past 12 months I have had to top up my coolant by about 200 ml I`m sad I know - I keep a small 500 ml bottle in the van with coolant in so if ever i have to top the system up I know how much I have lost. Anyway after going over every hose, connection, coreplug and the radiator and found nothing I checked the end of the bleed pipe with the plug in and the metal clip on it I found the slightest trace of coolant. I slid the clip back about 15mm so it was still on the plug and using a craft knife cut the hose using the metal clip as a straight edge and then cut from the clip to the plug and peeled the bit of hose off - because the clip was still on the plug there was no coolant loss - also had the hose clamped further down just incase. Then slid the clip a bit further down and pushed the plug fully home and put the clip back in place - the plug was a pain to get fully home as the hose was a tighter fit and there is now no coolant there. On closer inspection the end of the hose that I had cut off was thinner at the plug end than it was at the other end. Just thought I would post this as it could be an age related thing and one to look out for.

[daveblueozzie]

Nice find Ian , got a small amount of coolant loss on mine ,but I'm buggered if i can find it, gonna check the bleed hose, never thought of the plug end.

[snow_kiter]

Sounds very similar to a small leak I had recently, but at the other end of the hose.
I noticed a very small split at the metal stub end of the hose. Tried to push the split onto the stub and cut off the damaged portion but this didn't work.
Where the pipe sits on the metal a small lump of rust always seems to form. Having broken the seal it then wouldn't reseal so we had to remove the pipe and sand off the rust before refitting.

I am now the proud owner of probably the worlds shortest bleed hose - just about long enough to do the job.....

[kev&caz]

Just replaced my bleed hose small leak engine side took ages to find. I have put a 1M pipe that is reinforced but it is a petrol pipe. The O/D is slightly bigger than the original but the I/D is fine. The guy in the motor factors said it will be ok but I will monitor it.

[lazyb5]

Couldnt get the stopper off my bleed tube so cut the rubber which removed the end inch. Looks like i saved myself a problem