Leaking radiator bottle & wet passenger carpet - kzte

[Shawn-kzte]

Good afternoon friends,
I need some advice please. My radiator plastic bottle seems to be running low fairly often - and I comtinuously have to top it up (not a significant amount though). Ere is also a smell continuously inside my double cab. I checked around in the bakkie today and notice the passenger carpet is slightly wet - which I think is definitely the cause of the smell. Any idea if this is linked to the water loss in my radiator? Would really appreciate any advice please.

Thank you and have an awesome Sunday my friends!

[The Legend]

Shawn the reason for the wet passenger carpet is either your radiator heater or pipe under the dashboard is leaking or your aircon breather pipe is block.

[pieta.swanepoel]

Not a KZTE but my aircon drainage pipe got disconnected causing the passenger carpet to be wet. I checked that it wasn't blocked and cable-tied it back on

[Mars]

It could also be the heat exchanger inside the cab that is leaking. i.e. the small radiator to heat up the cab.

[Shawn-kzte]

Thank you Gentleman!

I take it that I will have to strip the underneath of the dash (near the cubby) to try to identify the leak.

Will this cause the expansion tank to go empty from time to time (becoming more frequent of late - perhaps twice per weekj).

The smell is a damp type of smell in the cabin ... not really good at all.

Thank you Gents!!

[JohanW]

Hi Shawn

On my old KZ I had to replace the heat exchanger after it sprung a leak. Be very careful driving it in its current condition. If you lose all the coolant you also lose the ability to measure temp. So the temp gauge will show normal while the motor is actually overheating.

Now for the crap part....

The entire dash needs to come out to replace the heat exchanger. Its a moerse job and if not done correctly you will have rattles forever.

Now for the temp fix: You can bypass the heat exchanger in the cab by simply bridging the two pipes that lead from the block to the cab. They run along the firewall behind the engine and enter the cab on the righthand side when standing with the bonnet open in front of you. If you bridge these two pipes you no longer have the ability to heat the cab. But your aircon will still work.

Good luck.

[Shawn-kzte]

Thank you Johan!