Pump appears to be leaking

TechMinerUK · 2 Jan 2016 at 01:00

Hello everyone

Today I have come across an issue with my system. I notice that when the pump was on full there were lots of bubbles and when I looked under the PC there was a lovely insulting (yet small) puddle of fluid staring at me :mad:

Now after opening both sides of the case and draining the system immediatley I'm not sure how to proceed as the coolant seems to be leaking albeit slowly from the pump part of the res/pump combo. Since the loop is a hardline loop I'm not sure which would be the best way to drain it completely and once it is fully drained where to go from here

It's odd as I haven't altered anything near the pump area since the loop was built with any maintenance being performed in the back

Whats more concerning is that I don't actually know where the leak is other than the puddle is under the pump and when I connected the drainage tube and began to blow into it the pressure didn't seem to decrease. :confused:

pingu666 · 2 Jan 2016 at 01:49

Food dye can help you find a leak, when used with kitchen roll the leak will show up. Leaks can cause bubbles so that might help u find it.

Thermal expansion and contraction is probably the cause

faheemrazzaq · 2 Jan 2016 at 01:52

ah mate. that's really annoying. I guess you need to drain your loop before able to fix anything.

TechMinerUK · 2 Jan 2016 at 01:56

pingu666 said:
Food dye can help you find a leak, when used with kitchen roll the leak will show up. Leaks can cause bubbles so that might help u find it.
Thermal expansion and contraction is probably the cause

This is the issue as despite draining the coolant the leak hasn't shown up again after drying up the puddles. It is concerning as I'm not sure how I can repplicate it without powering the system up to create the leak to find it :eek:

faheemrazzaq said:
ah mate. that's really annoying. I guess you need to drain your loop before able to fix anything.

I know, 4-5 months of easy running with no issues then this. Bit thats most annoying though is not knowing the cause as I can't get to the soloution without the cause. :mad:

What is concerning is that this has only occured after altering the pump speed, not sure if it is related to the leak yet or not but at the moment I'm considering all options

famas · 2 Jan 2016 at 10:19

Buy a cheap psu from the bay, you can get one for a fiver.
That way you can run the loop on Its own and hopefully find the leak before any damage is done.

Disco_P · 2 Jan 2016 at 10:47

Do you have any flexible tubing? Then you could set up a loop with just the pump and leave it running to find the cause of the leak.

I did something similar:

Lankoss · 2 Jan 2016 at 12:25

You can always try jumping the PSU by using a small wire to create a short-circuit between a green and black connector on the 20+4 pin connector that plugs into the motherboard, that way you can power your loop without powering anything else to find the leak without the worry of shorting out your other components. Just make sure you have everything ready to go and the wire in place before you plug in the PSU so you don't damage it.

Edit: Go to the 6min mark, he shows you how to jump the PSU and get the loop running without powering your motherboard/GPU etc.

TechMinerUK · 2 Jan 2016 at 13:41

Lankoss said:
You can always try jumping the PSU by using a small wire to create a short-circuit between a green and black connector on the 20+4 pin connector that plugs into the motherboard, that way you can power your loop without powering anything else to find the leak without the worry of shorting out your other components. Just make sure you have everything ready to go and the wire in place before you plug in the PSU so you don't damage it.
Edit: Go to the 6min mark, he shows you how to jump the PSU and get the loop running without powering your motherboard/GPU etc.

Thankyou, luckily I have an adapter that fits onto the end of my powersupply to start it without any components being connected. Unfortunatley I have the EK D5 PWM pump so it needs a PWM signal to run fast enough to show any possible leaks as it runs at a low RPM when connected to only the molex.

Disco_P said:
Do you have any flexible tubing? Then you could set up a loop with just the pump and leave it running to find the cause of the leak.

I do have some flexible tubing and once I have dismantled the system I will attempt to setup a loop similar to yours, it certainly will rule out causes one by one and hopefully lead me to the issue

famas said:
Buy a cheap psu from the bay, you can get one for a fiver.
That way you can run the loop on Its own and hopefully find the leak before any damage is done.

I would do but unfortunatley I lack the time. I've removed the PSU from the system with the leak since I've stripped it down to prevent any other issues so I'll use that to power the pump

cadmunkey · 2 Jan 2016 at 15:00

I dont like seeing this after I just finished building my first ever custom loop! Hope you get it sorted soon, I hated the downtime from my machine whilst I was working on building the loop.

TechMinerUK · 2 Jan 2016 at 15:53

cadmunkey said:
I dont like seeing this after I just finished building my first ever custom loop! Hope you get it sorted soon, I hated the downtime from my machine whilst I was working on building the loop.

I don't like it either

Good news though, after testing I don't think it's the pump. Been running for ages and no leak so im moving on to the o rings as I've bought a stack today after seeing some with marks on them.

Disco_P · 2 Jan 2016 at 15:55

cadmunkey said:
I dont like seeing this after I just finished building my first ever custom loop! Hope you get it sorted soon, I hated the downtime from my machine whilst I was working on building the loop.

You got to remember that people mostly post to the WC section when things go wrong.

Maybe we should have a sticky for people to post that their loop is working fine to balance things.

TechMinerUK · 2 Jan 2016 at 17:06

Disco_P said:
You got to remember that people mostly post to the WC section when things go wrong.

Maybe we should have a sticky for people to post that their loop is working fine to balance things.

It should be called "Cool as a cucumber"

TechMinerUK · 3 Jan 2016 at 15:45

Update:
So I've stripped down the system, bent some new tube to replace one that was damaged whilst draining the system and now I'm leak testing it. All the fittings have been re-fitted with new O-Rings so fingers crossed and wish me luck.

Bad news is either way I need more fluid