Hello...

To begin, I let someone barrow my car...a 1983 300 TD, which I've had for over 10 years....I've owned 3 cars in my life...since the day I got my first driver's licence...each being a Merz 300TD of one kind or another...

Anyways, long story short, when I got it back, there was radiator fluid leeking from a specific point, where the driver of my vehicle claimed he'd hit a curb/bump (whatever) on the right passanger side. By the time the car arived home, it was a miracle it didn't burst into flames the moment my car was returned to me.

Of course, this is my problem now, and here I am, hoping one of you dear readers can help me fix it...

I poured some water into the coolant reserve tank to watch it empty down the tubes in the hope of finding the exact point under my car where it had been struck causing the leakage. This, didn't prove as successful as I had hoped tonight in the dark, but when you see your baby of 10 years smoking to it's death, you do what you can do.

Anyway...it's my guess that it's this one particular hose that connects somehwere to the bottom of the Radiator, where I was able to feel around and watch fresh water trickle onto the concrete. I felt around as best I could without lifting the car above the ground, and felt a little metal clamp through all the greese (you know what I mean) which appeared to be the wetest area.

My question to all of you, is if anyone could offer me any advice as to what exact hose this might be I need to replace...or cut, reclamp, wrap with duct tape, epoxy, whatever in order to insure that the coolant reaches it's destination to my radiator without croking on me...I gotta get to work on Monday....

And if anyone could e-mail me a diagram, a visual aid, even a sketch, demonstrating exactly which among the many hoses comming out of my Coolant Reserve Tank and down towards this area south of the radiator itself?

Oh yeah, and to make matters worse, I don't even have a proper radiator to begin with...Beleive it or not, the little hose connecting from this Coolant Reserve tank to the Radiator itself was severed by another one of my "friends" when attempting to show me how to replace my fuel filter a couple of years ago. We epoxied that shut though, and luckily, haven't really had any trouble with my cooling system until this latest little "mishap". Maybe this latest event will finally teach me a lesson...

To be perfectly honest, obviously, I'm not the most knowledgable person when it comes to mechanics...but having owned three 300 TD over the past 15 years, I've picked up a thing or two over the years which has enabled me to maintain this particular vehicle for over 250,000 miles...nothing too impressive, but some plain english advice could go a long way in my case....which will save me the indignity of going to a "mechanic" for something that may take less than a few minutes out of my day tomorrow....


Thanks,
Julie

 

From what I remember the only hose at the bottom of radiator is the return hose, what is about 2" diameter.
The reserve tank is having small hose going to the top of the radiator and bigger hose connected to the system (I remember tee on heater hose?). The small hose is critical for bleeding the air from the radiator.
Anyway, those are plastic side radiators. If you are lucky, the hose with the clamp slide-out and needs to be tighten.
Worst case scenario is, that plastic nipple cracked and you need new radiator. Those plastic last for 20 years, but not forever.
This way, or another you need to get under the car, clean the area and see it for yourself.
It is hard to see it from here.