Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Hi all got back from Potch road trip, in Bloem stopped and noticed water puddle forming with dripping water primarily from front right of car.

Heat gauge was and still is steady, water seems to be dripping from sensor on the bottom right of the radiator, is it a seal on the sensor that has failed or is ir something more serious?

Thanks!

Begin met die cap te vervang

There are two sensors on the bottom of the radiator. The one on the passenger side is to control the aircon and shut it down if the water temp gets too high as far as I know. The left one, again as far as I know, controls the glowplugs. When the water temp gets to 50deg C, the glow plugs are switched off. I would firstly try tighten that sensor a bit to see if it just needed that fraction of extra tightness to seal properly. This is all assuming that the leak is coming from there. Have a good look around to see if you can see where the start of the leak is, as it could be coming from the side of the radiator and dripping at the lowest point.

On my radiator, both sensors have a copper washer. I recently had my radiator out to repair my waterpump, as I have a massive aftermarket radiator and space is a premium. When I refitted the 2 sensors I used a little PTFE tape ( plumbers tape) on the threads as when I took them out they had some on. Be careful on how you put the PTFE tape on as you don't want bits of the tape to go into the radiator, just on the threads to help seal. Mine are as dry as the Namib desert .....haha.

Doing this will naturally mean that you need to drain the radiator, this is a good idea to flush out the whole cooling system and replace the coolant/antifreeze with a QUALITY antifreeze/coolant. Please don't use cheapy stuff. My old waterpump I took off to replace still looks fantastic inside with NO brown rusty marks or corrosion having taken place (150 000km later). Piece of mind is worth the extra money spent on good quality coolant/antifreeze. Also make sure you mix it to the specs on the bottle. Mine takes 13L of water total, so put in 6 bottles of antifreeze, keeping it just slightly under 50% mix.

While you are doing all of this, you may as well replace the 2 radiator hoses, and take the radiator out to ,make sure the fins on the radator are all clean and free of grass and seeds that are probably stuck in there over the years.

I have ordered a replacement cap, as normal in Bloemfontein you can get anything you want as long as you want it tomorrow or the day after.....

I am planning on doing coolant system flush anyway - that's what school holidays are for. I also spoke to Thinus Lotz and I am going to check for bubbles in the coolant later today to rule out head gasket failure....

I seriously doubt it is that serious. I think you may just have a small water leak. Is the radiator still the old original with the plastic top and bottom tank? It may be something as simple as the plastic giving up. Don't let Tinus scare the crap out of you with head gasket issues. If you are not overheating, then chances are that the head gasket is still fine.

Plastic as far as I can tell.

As you say, no overheating - but given the td42's reputation as a kettle, rather save than sorry.

If you are doing a coolant flush, I would whip out the radiator and send it in for a check at a reputable company. I use a great guy at Silverton radiators in Alberton.... but i think that is a bit far....hahaha.

Remember if they paint that ally radiator throw it away ....a new one is like 4k so dont spend the world fixing it ...i was under the impression the water comes out the overflow pipe...is that correct?

Driver side bottom of radiator at the sensor

Tinus was listening upside down.....hahahahahahahaha