Coolant loss...

[Mr_Orange]

Hi,
Car was stood for a week, took it out for spin to shops all is well. Started it up and went to drive away, STOP COOLANT! comes on....
Popped bonnet and header tank is almost empty. No signs of leaks and no mayo on cap? It wasn't even fully up to temperature so topped up and steady drove home. No warnings, no leaks?
Parked up with engine running for 40 mins, til radiator fans came on. No leaks and no drop in level? I did all this with heating off to get car up to temp.
Spent the time clambering all over the car to notice an out of place little drop of water on vent down in front passenger footwell and carpet in back is possibly slightly damp.
Afterwards there was a small amount of fluid dripped from tailpipes, no large amounts of steam so took this just to be damp from being standing.
Car is otherwise running well.
As there's no visible leaks in engine bay and going by what I've seen, I'm thinking possible heater matrix or dreaded head gasket! :@
Any pointers or advice please people?
I've just got some money together for paint work and yet again will be spending it on something else!

[baker1983]

Touch the carpet with some kitchen towel and see what colour it is? Also does the carpet smell quite sweet?
The exhaust is probably just condensation due to the drop in temp.

[Mr_Orange]

Touch the carpet with some kitchen towel and see what colour it is? Also does the carpet smell quite sweet?
The exhaust is probably just condensation due to the drop in temp.

Good shout with paper, I'll have a go in the am. That drop of water by the vent just looked plain wrong!
I was planning to drive around with heating off for a bit, thought if it still leaks that might narrow it down to engine side of things.
+1 on condensation or is that just my wishful thinking?
Tbh I don't know which job is worse and likely to bring me to tears !? >

[baker1983]

Just thinking about it I have never seen  water in any face vents or screen before. It's to heavy to blow up there but I have seen it from floor vents.
Have you checked your oil level just to make sure it's nothing like an oil cooler? Longshot but I've had loads of vauxhalls do it and a lot of dsg boxes!

[Mr_Orange]

Gingerly drove to work and back home today. Checked coolant level before and after each trip, 20 miles and no coolant loss. All other levels fine and mayo free.
Noticed one of the heater matrix pipes is wearing through above the dv, I got excited but no sign of coolant.
I've had the interior heating off again today, so I'm logically erring on it being the heater matrix.
It's booked in for cylinder compression and coolant pressure tests before I commit and tear the car apart.
This is the sort of thing that writes off a car this age!

[OSR]

I recently had a very slow coolant leak happening. After 20 miles or so, no noticeable drop in header tank, but after a good run (few hundred miles for example) the level would drop to about halfway between the low and high.

Originally thought it was the "coolant plastic flange" on the right hand side of the engine block and/or the thermostat housing. Replaced these earlier in the year and thought I'd fixed it. I hadn't! 

Did a bit of research and the other classic leak location is the "plastic y-piece" on the left hand side of the engine block, next to the charcoal canister and kind of underneath the header tank but slightly forward. I paid £30 for an ECS tuning metal replacement from PSI tuning and fitted it at the weekend. Still need to do enough miles to tell if its actually fixed but the give-away was some pink crust building up around where the hoses joined the y-piece.

HTH?

[Mr_Orange]

Hey man. Thanks. I just saw your comment in the other thread. Fingers crossed for.ya ;-)

Garage were unable to find evidence of leak on mine so they've put some uv ink in there, when it leaks they can find with black light. I hope it's something as simple as a perished hose, but gut feel it is in the cabin.