Coolant disappearing

[camarocrzy]

Im having a problem with my coolant disappearing. Everyday ive got to add some. Not alot,maybe half a 2 liter bottle. I can smell coolant burning from under the hood but i dont have any spots on the ground. My temp gauge fluxuates between 170 to about 200, it used to stay below 180 all the time. Its not smoking out the exhaust at all. What gives?

[Rob Bell]

It may be dripping on the exhaust pipe. I would look under there when the car is hot, you'll probably see where it's dripping out.

[rhouse21]

I had the exact same problem. Turns out I had a lower manifold gasket leak, so coolant was leaking onto the top of my engine block (and perhaps into my intake). It could also be your water pump leaking out of the weep hole, but you'd probably notice coolant on the ground in that case.

Have a good tech do a pressure test of your coolant system and go from there. If it is the gasket, I've heard it's not a very hard repair, just a bit time consuming. I paid a goodyear service center $680.00 to do it 'cuz I don't have a place to do that kind of repair now.

[slow6]

isnt this summertime?
why do u need coolant?
ok whatever

[phil97.3.8]

camarocrzy,

My car did the same thing about a year ago. I didn't really see puddles of coolant either, but it was my water pump, and it got worse til i got a new one put on.

And slow6, you do "need coolant" in the summertime as well as fall, spring and winter.

[slow6]

water transfers heat better than coolant

i'll use "coolant" in winter
thank you

[camarocrzy]

If it was leaking from the manifold,wouldnt i hear it boil when it hit the exhaust?

[rhouse21]

I didn't. The only "real" sign I had to go on was the smell and having to ad fluid every few weeks. Then in got worse and I was adding fluid every few days and still seeing no puddles. My dexcool got really cruddy, though. It looked like sludge was forming in it. Apparently Dexcool does that when there's an air leak in the system. (Who knew?) Looking back, I probably had that leek for about 2 years, but just wrote the symptoms off to my car's high mileage. In that time I lost a water pump, heater core, and a radiator. After the fact, one of the goodyear techs told me that that dexcool sluge probably cause all those failures.

[slow6]

**** dexcool
sludge ****

[rhouse21]

Originally posted by slow6:
**** dexcool
sludge ****

Yeah, my coolant system was filled with this orange gunk that almost looked like rusty mud. The Goodyear tech told me that once air get's into the coolant system, it reacts with the chemicals in the dexcool and over time creates this "sludge". Like I said, I think this problem was going on for a while, so I don't know how long it takes for this stuff to form. Looking back, I wish I'd taken some pictures.

Anyway, He said that over time it can really clog up the coolant passages in the heter core and radiator, and it's muck up the water pump.