well guys ive inquired a tough find for myself, i just did the water pump after it had been leaking badly, now after about 700 miles it seems to be needing coolant topped off every couple days, then now the coolant level mysteriously goes down. there isnt any puddles on the garage floor or anything, and yet i have to add coolant, so my first scare was head gasket, i dont see any white smoke, and the exhaust doesnt smell anything like coolant, so i am turning that down. it seems as though when its hot, the coolant expands into the overflow tank and i ear a hissing, which i beleive is a bad cap. which might be the cause, but also it shows a bit of spray on the underside of my hood as though pressure is spraying it out, im hoping the cap is the answer, but i am still trouble shooting here. p.s. all turbo lines are clean, and radiator end tanks look fine, just seems to be the over flow tank. any info would be a great help :thumbup:
mysterious coolant disappearing
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My brother was having this same issue with his 2006 S60 2.5t and it ended up being the radiator was slowly leaking; he too didn't have any fluid on the floor, but after the dealer closely looked at the radiator the saw it leaking. Worth a shot to look at!
Good Luck!
Good Luck!
wow that is some definite encouragement for me, i'm afraid it is a head gasket... it also is kind of stuttering for about 15 seconds upon start up, and then clears out fine, buut it doesnt have any hesitation at all while driving and warmed up etc.. also the excessive coolant expansion is usually only when driven fairly hard. but nothing like full out beating apart the car
i think what might be happening, is that it expands when it is hot, causing it to leak, while driving, so i dont notice the leaking, but then once i get home i have driven far enough and let it cool down for it to not leak on the floor... because today i tested this method, and i romped on it a little while, then cooled the turbo down a bit, and parked, opened the hood and the cap was spraying/hissing coolant out of it. then leaking on my floor leaving about a 6 inch puddle.. then went out after about 2 hours later, and the coolant level had gone down in the tank about 3 inches.. it just seems so weird. hence why i thought maybe a bad cap.
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sounds like cracked sleeve not head gasket...notice the key words "sounds like" = from what you describe.
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Try a new expansion tank. They like to leak at the seam. I replaced mine and no more leak. I know It's fairly common.
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do those cause "stuttering for about 15 seconds upon start up"?
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save your self some time and do the coolant carbon test first ...it's quicker.
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Yeah, this pretty much is bad news, the stuttering is likely due to coolant that has leaked into one cylinder that is preventing the ignition of the air fuel mixture.
I have similar but less excessive coolant loss, (add every 5 weeks or so) and rough idle on start up maybe 1 out of 5 - 10 times, and coolant test that was negative which I think was because the issue is still relatively Minor but I truly believe bad things are in my future............... still pondering my next steps, will just add coolant as necessary for now
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i am not sure about that...the carbon test would come out positive..you might have something else going on.
I had the same issue with stuttering on startup and losing coolant with no evidence of water anywhere. We finally figured out it was a head gasket leak. I nursed this for about three weeks until the head gasket failed last Monday. It produced quite a vapor cloud on I-35. I lost all coolant in about 15 seconds. I had already located another motor which is being installed now along with a few minor adjustments.
I hope it is something else for both of you, but it sounds like coolant is leaking into one or two cylinders. I tried several fixes before we figured it out. Those new parts were transferred to the new engine.
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so in your case it was the just head gasket and you replaced the engine? that's rare , the head gasket.
My engine was using a quart of oil every 700 miles. I had already planned to replace it. It lasted 142k miles of which 80% were running 21 lbs of boost. It started using oil at about 110k miles, and I believe it was due to running 10% ethanol premium for the first 75k miles while living in TX. All premium in TX has ethanol, so there was no other choice. Ethanol is hell on seals, especially when running higher boost levels.
Well technically it would have to be 2 things going on, one to explain the loss of coolant and another to explain the random rough idle on start up, they just both seem to fit a compomised cylinder issue. I used the Liske kit to check for carbon, so AFAIK its accurate ane reliable
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oh ok , I thought from head gasket to engine replacement...do you remember what was your compression when you were burning all that oil?
I would pull the spark-plugs and just by inspecting them it will be noticeable which cylinder it is that you think the coolant loss is coming from and since you got them all out check the compression and you'll have your confirmation.
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