Coolant loss

[Blackheart4355]

Hi,

My 94 ATX with 207000Km on it does the following strange thing. After shutting it down, as the engine cools it wil spit some coolant from somewhere on the drivers side. After a few days my low coolant light comes on. I recently changed the T-stat which has seemed to help. Any ideas where it might be coming from??

 

[ckinart]

Blackheart,

The best thing for you to do is to look for possible sources of the coolant leak when you see evidence of it on the ground. Take a look at the underside of the upper radiator hose. If it is not sufficiently clamped, it can leak. You can also check the drain petcock to be sure that it is completely closed.

Also, it is not uncommon for the radiators to leak in these cars (so it seems). The core of the radiator is aluminum, and the end tanks are plastic. Where the two are crimped together is a common source of leaks.

Like I said, you'll have to do some looking when you see evidence of leaking to pinpoint the source. I can only suggest a few places to start. thumb

 

[cyanmauve]

This is more of a far shot, but is any steam looking stuff coming out of your ac/heater vents? Is there an antifreeze smell that wafts out on occassion? If so, you might have a bad heater core.This is a remote possability though.

 

[SHO_Driver]

I used to have coolant running out of the overflow bottle about 15mins after shutting off the engine. The rad cap wasn't sealing properly causing coolant to spill from the overflow line. New rad cap fixed that.

 

[Bizzy]

Ditto what ckinart said. My radiator had a crack in the plastic part of the tank itself. Of course it showed itself quite readily when the car was running though.

Check the petcock and the radiator hose on that side of the radiator. Let the car idle for a little while, then turn it off. Grab your flashlight and look for drips of coolant and/or steam rising. It should be fairly evident when the coolant is hot.