Slow Coolant Loss, And Clutch Noise

[533clive]

Loving my '04 IS200, but have a couple of small niggles that I could do with some advice/direction on, please.

Firstly, it seems that I need to top up the expansion tank about every two weeks, is this normal? When I bought the car I had the cam belt changed, and the water pump replaced at the same time. No puddles underneath when sat, even for a couple of days, no evidence of ingestion into the engine, and no steam when warm from the engine bay. Any ideas?

Secondly, after driving for a while, and lots of gear changes, on pulling away I can hear a rhythmic squeaky rubbing noise, like something in the clutch is rubbing or not engaging evenly. It only happens on the initial pull away, car pulls away smoothly as usual, even if I pull away in second (for diagnostic purposes), and only if there has been lots of stop/starts. If i do sixty odd miles on the motorway, there's no noise when pulling away afterwards. There does seem to be a vibration felt through the steering wheel when driving in the sixty to eighty mph speed range. Whether this is related or not I have no idea? Again, any direction as to the cause would be greatly appreciated.

[1979roy]

The vibration through the wheel will be wheel balance out or buckled wheels ,the squeak will prob be the release bearing I just done my clutch and put a new bearing in as well and having similar problems it sounds like u have a buggie in the box mine goes when u just touch the pedal , as for coolant check all ur hose joins for furring ( corrosion against the metal components) mine also lost water and turned out to be the rad so I put a new one in £51 delivered of eBay brand new

Hope this helps

[533clive]

Thanks for the reply buddy.

I don't think it's a release bearing type squeak. It's hard to describe the noise. When the clutch is being released, so at the biting point, it makes the noise rhythmically a sort of second on, second off noise until the clutch is fully released (so while it is engaging, and the car is pulling away), but as I said, only when the clutch has been used a lot.

Will check again all the hoses for the coolant.

[1979roy]

Maybe the dual mass flywheel is knackered ???? They do a solid flywheel conversion for them that's the only thing i can think of may be check the the prop shaft bearings for play too??

[533clive]

Thanks again buddy