Daihatsu CS radiator

Forum: 

hi guys,

I hope you can help me with this one.
I just got a used Daihatsu charade CS sold to my from my friend. I just want to know if it's just normal to refill the radiator with water everyday ('coz I'm doing it). Is there a way or some accessory which I can attach to it so I can determine the water level of the radiator at the driver's seat?

Radiator

by the way guys, I'm running hot always..../

Leak

A simple answer .... you have a coolant leak. Check all the coolant pipes, clips, radiator, radiator's cap for signs of water leakage. If no leak is visible then its probably a cylinder-head having a blown head gasket. A more critical problem could be a cracked cylinder-head. Can be verified by a cylinder compression test. A rough guide is to remove the radiator cap [be careful] whilst the engine is hot - rev the engine - look for air bubbles surfacing on the coolant. Also look for oil floating on the coolant.
Another indication of a blown head gasket ---- white vapour blown from the exhaust whilst the engine is running at normal temperature

Re: Leak

I checked it and it seemed that my radiator cap is the problem. Water leaks from the radiator cap. But I wonder if that leakage is the only reason why I ran out of coolant/water always in my radiator. If there are other leakages, it would be obvious, right? Since water would be dripping under the car, right?

Rad cap .. try first then test.

Suprising how much water you will loose from the rad cap whilst the engine is hot. It escapes as steam and you can loose a litre in just a few miles.
Either fit a new cap or repair the old. You could cut a new seal [inside the cap] from a piece of inner tube. Also the caps lugs might need compressing so it fits tight onto the rad ---- compress the rad car's lugs vertically so the cap sits down tight and dont squash the lugs sideways which achieves nothing but a worse seal!

got another problem

Replaced the cap and got the car working at low temperature for some time. But then a few days later, I noticed the coolant started to lower down again. I checked for some leaks ang I noticed that this time it came from the water pump assembly. I was adviced to change the entire assembly. Do I need to change the entire assembly or can it be repaired? say for example, changing just the gasket?

Do it once.

Depends upon the cash in your pocket. You dont want to do the job twice. It could be just a gasket that needs replacing but look closely at the exit point! If the leak is from a metal only seal/bearing then replace the pump.