I'm am praying to the great Banche nightly in hope that this is a simple problem to rectify, but after reading my Haynes manual I am not too sure.

Just today as I returned home after a drive I noticed coolant leaking from the engine. I popped the hood up to discover it is streaming from the hose directly below the filler cap on the expansion tank. Once the engine was off, it is making wonderful gurgling sounds but the leaking stopped. I have checked the radiator and it is not coming from anywhere else. According to the "trouble shooting section" in my Haynes manual it says that this problem is attributed to a blown head gasket. This should not be as the engine was brand new in August and I have always monitered the coolant.

Does anyone have any advice to give to a man on the verge of a heart attack?

Hi Letho,

I checked the expansion tank after the leak and it still had fluid in it, so I took it out again for another drive and when it reached a certain temp it did it again. The last time it would have had the fluid filled or "over filled" would have been my last service and that was at least 2 months ago. You should see the left over pools on the road when I had to stop at the lights and such.

Hi Ramon,

Thanks again for your helpful tips. I will try and check the filler cap tomorrow morning and see if I can track down a replacement (I've heard you can get them at most auto supply shops). With my track record of problems with this car I would not be suprised if it will be a blown head gasket. Unfortunately this year I suffered a loose piston ring resulting in a tapping engine. The result led to a new engine, which was not an easy task with a very unhelpful mechanic. I since have taken my business elsewhere whom have been tirelessly keeping my little investment running beautifully. So, when it has always come to small sounding problems with the car it always turns into some very complicated and usually expensive job - hence why my panic at a potential blown head gasket.

I am hoping it isn't the head gasket as it just wouldn't make sense that it should happen on a new engine that has been maintained. I will contact my mechanic Monday morning and try and book it in for them to look at if the filler cap test dosen't work.

Sorry to sound like a cynic, but although the idea of owning one of the finest designed and executed automobiles ever to roll out of an assembly line, it does have it's fair share of problems, and living in a country that only seems to think the world should be driving only two types of cars and referring to anything to come out of the Sceptred Isle as "pommy piece of junk - lets charge a fortune to fix!", it doesn't help

Have you removed the bung from the top corner of the radiator and checked the level inside? Sometimes it seems to empty (filling a previous air bubble) and then fails to draw more coolant in from the expansion tank to replace it. The result being the system looks full (the expansion tank is up to the correct mark), but it actually isn't, which could cause all sorts of funny behaviour.

Also, after getting the engine up to temp and switching off, undoing the expansion tank cap 5-10 mins later should result in a release of pressure. If not, the cap is probably failed, as suggested

Hey everybody. Sorry for not getting back for a while on this topic, however mystery now solved and all is well. First of all I wish to thank everyone with their marvellous suggestions. The problem in question is actually related to my first little problem regarding the rear demister cutting out when the engine reaches a certain temp.

Monday saw me bring my beloved to my mechanic to do a test for a blown head gasket - all clear, there is a poblem with the cooling system, most likely the radiator. YES! no big bills or the car being out of action for ages. The mechanic took out the radiator to find it had been congealed with 23 years of muck, including that goop that they use as a sealant. The final piece of the puzzle was a faulty thermostat. The mechanics said that when I had the engine removed the radiator should have been checked and flushed.

Anyway, a week on and she is starting better on a hot day, the temp gauge now reads well below the 90C mark and the rear demister is now working as on a cooler day, the temp is down therefore the fans don't have to kick in. So there you go, two problems for the price of one.

I now urge one and all to get your radiators checked regularly to avoid those nasty things like....heartattacks?

My radiator is lying on the floor. Thx for the tip... now I know to flush my rad before I put it in the car.

Ideally with alloy engines in particular, you should routinely remove the radiator, unsolder the tanks and poke long metal rods through the core tubes to clean out all the muck. This is especially important with the 3.9 / 4.0 / 4.6 engines which can suffer the dreaded cracked block syndrone if they are allowed to seriously overheat (see Des Hammill's book on this).

With my 4.6 SD1 and 3.9 Disco I pull the radiator apart every two to three years and clean it out. Flushing with a hose is not enough to remove all the alloy sediment that collects and can block the core.

Another cheap but effective mod I have now done which helps keep the coolant clean and helps get rid of airlocks is to fit a Tefba filter into the top hose, see

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That Tebfa is a good idea, especially in the hard water area I live in....

Of course, we have oil filters, air filters, fuel filters,

why not coolant filters? Cracking idea (wish I had thought of it - patent office...££££££ (or $$$$$$)