Where is my coolant going?

blown93feature said:

put a tester to the radiator,this will tell if you are putting exhaust gasses in the fluid if it turns purple you have a blown head gasket.I would almost bet thats the issue.

Does the temp spike at all?

Have you taken the cap off and just allow the engine to come up to temp and wait to see if the coolant blows out and than goes down and then repeats the same thing?If you see this happening than you have bad gasket and the engine is pressureizing your coolant system.The only time you should see it rise (but not blow out)is when the temp rises and than the thermostat will open and allow the fluid to pass by,keep in mind that this all when the cap is off, it will be different when cap is on that is when the overflow will come in too play but only as a place for the expanded fluid to go than as it cools it will retract back into the system by vac.

Another symptom is windshield fogging up.

You may not think your burning it because you don't see an excessive amount of white smoke but you are burning some.

I hope this helped,good luck.

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HISSIN50 said:

if you want, get under the car and look at the bottom of the pump. there is a weep hole there, and you should see some staining around that hole. that would confirm what they said.
good luck. not a bad job to do, should you undertake it yourself.

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HISSIN50 said:

GM, i thought you said in post #8 that it was the pump?
i know when my pump began leaking, the drip was actually under the driver corner of the radiator, since the coolant was exiting the weep hole on the pump, ran down the coolant line, and then dripped off at a low point.

just thought i would mention it....hate to replace parts that were good to go. also im confused on which part is really leaking...
good luck. sounds like you got it figured out.

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HISSIN50 said:

Gm, sorry to hear that (rad is more expensive, but easier to do). just goes to show that some dealers are not so good. LOL. an alternative would be a 3 core from Pep Boys or autozone. they are in the 130 buck range and work quite well. lifetime warranty, made by Modine or Go Dan (cant remember). i will use one when the time comes. Jerry Beach and Jrichker run them (there are others, i can remember whom right now).
good luck. BTW, i dont know how in to this stuff you are, but you could swap it yourself pretty easily, if you want to save some money. not hard at all. few tools needed.
good luck.

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