My car (skoda superb) is slowly leaking coolant – warning light came on, refilled, but dropped a fair bit again in a few days. The side of the radiator casing has some fluid all along it and there is stuff below on the engine tray floor (nothing on the other side).

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Assuming this is a radiator leak is it simple to tackle yourself and fit a replacement? Or is it something best left to a garage?
We’d planned on visiting family later this week in the car, worth throwing in some radweld and making the journey (ca. 100 miles roundtrip), or best to leave it do ye reckon?

Looks like the bit on the right is wet too sure its not spray from a worn hose?

Can you not leave it running and see whats spraying?

When i have had leaks its always been a cable or wire thats broken free and just sat there quietly rubbing away.

Waterpump? If that isn’t water on the edge of the radiator.

Looks the top of that rubber hose has green mould on it caused by a leak. If it’s nothing to fix like a hose or hole in the radiator and it’s not too bad try some rad weld.if your system is low on coolant beyond being topped up you will need to rebleed the system making sure theres no air trapped before adding radweld

You need to track it down. If it is losing enough to be noticable in a few days then it should be easy to spot. Fire it up and let it get up to temperature then have a good look round. Replacing a hose or a rad is usually pretty easy. I replaced my rad in a pub carpark after it split. The pub let us stay there and I had the new rad delivered next day. Don’t put radweld in if you plan to keep the car.

rad weld is for cars whos next trip is to the trade in/auction.

dont put it in anything you want to keep.

If its dropping that much itll be visible

If its not visible where its coming from and its dropping that noticably on the tank then your engines spitting it out the exhaust.

If its not visible where its coming from and its dropping that noticably on the tank then your engines spitting it out the exhaust.

Could be getting past the head gasket, have you checked under the oil filler cap for mayonaise?

Thks – I’ve had the engine running but couldn’t see any obvious leak, will try another look.

V happy with the car in general so will swerve the radweld.

i doubt it if his undertray is wet …. but it was more to be clear that it can go else where other than out the hoses and radiator and if its noticably dropping level in the tank then it should be visible …. i had a tiny tiny drop in the van level over months ….. and i was able to find the pinhole in the rad matrix quite easily just by looking round the engine…..

The answer is it depends – on lots of things and its best to get info/advice from those who know the make/model of the cars.
typically folks like those at briskoda will give you a proper idea of what is involved,

Hopefully its not like some of the VAG models where you have to hang the entire rad/fan/aircon condensor sandwich off some easily made but vital special tools..

OK had another look with the engine running for 5 mins and there is a build up of fluid at a pipe join, looks like water and it’s where the big pipe (which is v cold and I think comes from the coolant fill) goes down into a component at the bottom of the engine. Circular silver part circled and you can srt of see the fluid in the photo. Could this just be condensation though?

In your very first picture whats going on with the funny lumpy coolant pipe and the smaller pipe to the bottom left they also look wet.

If it’s a petrol engine version, the Ea888 engine is prone to the thermostat housing failing.

Might be worth asking on the Briskoda website.

Is there is an expansion tank with an over flow pipe off the neck where the cap fits?
If there is, remove the cap and bodge cheapo tyre compressor to the end of the pipe.
Switch the compressor on and seal the open filler cap with your hand. Don’t let the pressure get above 10 psi, any leaks should show.