Where is my coolant going?

[Green_Meanie]

Low Coolant light keeps coming on, so I fill it and the light shuts off, but where is it going, no smoke out the exhaust so I am not burning it and no drops or puddles on the ground, so where is it going? Seems to go low every other day or so.

 

[blown93feature]

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.

 

[Green_Meanie]

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.

Thanks for the info. I'll test it this weekend.

 

[5.0Droptop]

check your oil level make sure its not going in the oil pan

 

[HISSIN50]

i like the info given. to add, how hot do you run and what do you fill it with (water or coolant, or a mix)?
you could be boiling off the water in the system, esp if the cap has failed (and is not pressurizing the the system, which lowers the boilin point).
recent cooling system work of late?
as mentioned (i think) was if the inside of the windshield is getting slimey/cloudy, or you smell something sweet in the interior, heater core could be leaking.

might want to get some cooling system dye from the parts store. put it in and see if you can find a leak. coolant burns off so fast (and sometimes clean), it can be hard to find a leak by eyeballing it.

just a couple of ideas.good luck.

 

[PRO50SC]

Check your carpet under the dash. See if your heater core is leaking inside the car.

 

[ECU5.0]

definetly could be a heater core problem. i didnt have any coolant inside the car or any leaks that i could find anywhere but i was having to put coolant in the car maybe twice a week until i finally decided to bypass the heater core and it fixed it.

 

[Green_Meanie]

Just picked up the car from Ford(ABS fuse missing) and they said they saw the leak while checking the ABS system. Its leaking from the water pump, must be burning off from the motor heat, cause I have yet to see a drop under the car.

 

[HISSIN50]

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.

 

[Green_Meanie]

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.

Yeah I did that check, no go, but I found the leak. After driving home from work I popped the hood and shut off the car. I just waited and sure enough it started to leak, actually more of shooting out. It was the radiator.

Not exactly where I wanted to start modding but now a Fluidine will be going in.

 

[HISSIN50]

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.

 

[bgjohnson]

when I took my radiator out(stock) it had a hole in the drivers side lower corner and what it was doing was dripping right into the frame and running into a spot where I wouldn't check and it would just run out when the car was moving so I never saw a leak until I could turn the radiator over and look at it out of the car, and it was like a pin hole, and my fluid light never came on because it was broke. thank god for H/C/I's you'll never know what you find when you rip stuff apart

 

[Green_Meanie]

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.

Ford said it was the pump, but I checked it myself after that and it looked fine, no wet spots or anything. Trust me I found it. When I popped the hood you couldnt miss the stream shooting out of the radiator. Its shooting out from a hose connection point(not the hose) right below the filler neck(trans cooler line connection?) I dont have a garage so I cant deal with it now. I am going to try to seal the problem for now until I can replace the radiator.

 

[HISSIN50]

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.

 

[Green_Meanie]

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.

I plan to do it myself, only issue is I no longer have a garage, so I need to find a place to work on it at. Its just sitting at home right now, battery decided to take a crap on me as well.

I am going to Pep Boys afterwork so I will check out that radiator, 3 core huh? Fluidynes is only a 2 core.