Coolant Leak (I'm fearing the worst)

[busterdan]

Hi all, just a few days ago I bought a 2006 Micra 1.2S with 116K miles.... On the whole it is in pretty good condition.

But I've just found a leak, the coolant is really clean, no oil deposits etc, so I think it may be coming from the pump housing on the engine block, certainly revving the engine completely covers the gearbox with coolant, I just can't clearly see where it is coming from.

I've attached the best picture I can get.

I still need to do some research but I wonder if this is a common problem and easily fixed, I'm guessing if it is the head gasket then the car is as good as fit for the scrap yard.

Thanks

 

[busterdan]

Just a bit of a follow up.......

This is weird...very very strange...... I went back out to the car and revved it a few times..... coolant absolutely everywhere, pooling on the gearbox/clutch housing and even sprayed up against the engine bulkhead where the hoses feed into the heater matrix within the car.

I let the car continue to warm up and get hot, although the fan never kicked in (so I'm not sure if thats working either).... tried revving the car again and couldn't see any coolant loss. The coolant level is just above the minimum level in the expansion tank and I topped this up just with a small amount of water (although strangely this doesn't seem to have mixed with the coolant at the bottom of the expansion tank - are there two chambers?).

I had already removed and refitted the radiator filler cap a few times but I couldn't see any apparent leaking from there.

I next doused the whole area over the gearbox etc. with clean water and let it dry off before checking again for leaks..... once more absolutely no signs of coolant leaking or dripping, even when revving the engine hard.... I'm really confused I have no idea what's going on.

 

[busterdan]

Here is also a little video... it's not much help other than it shows where the coolant sprayed all over the engine bay..... Now I still can't see where it has come from... this morning I went out, let the car warm up, gave it some revvs, no coolant loss.... so weird!