S3 header tank overflow ?

[lostu]

hi guys,went for a spin today B) and whilst parking up in garage i saw coolant fluid dripping under rear of car.it was before and after engine switch off,seeking the leak i found it to be coming out of overflow pipe.this also happened last week when shuting down engine,then it just stops?.could be my fault as the week before i was doing checks oil,brake,coolants etc.i noticed level in header tank about 30mm below surface so i toped up.i don,t think too much though or maybe i did as its started after this,all tempertures seem ok any ideas or is it simply overflow cheers lostu.

[hilly]

If you have recently topped up the header tank then it is probably pushing out excess fluid.

As the radiator is a long distance from the engine and has large feed pipes which run down the chassis tunnel it thefore holds a lot of water in the system and hence has a high expansion level range.

This means that the header tank may look empty when actually it isn't. So you top it up and due to heat expansion it forces the excess out and that is what you are seeing.

Hilly

[lostu]

hi hilly,thanks for that advice i thought it maybe overflow tracing back my steps.i just needed a second opinion within the forum thanks for getting intouch so quick cheers lostu.