While I was looking at my coolant level in the overflow tank yesterday I noticed pinkish coolant residue on the overflow tank cap and then looked at the radiator cap and it was covered in the same pinkish coolant residue.
2006 Cam LE 4 Cylinder, 52,000. Already done 2 coolant drain and fills--the Head bolt issue scares me.....
My 1992 Nissan Primera 2.0 slx is overheating, probably on its last legs. First time this happened the radiator overflow tank seemed low so I topped it up with glycerol and added some leak plugger to the radiator for good measure. The car drove just fine for 20-30km then it happened again. At the same time, and I don't know if this is relevant, the windscreen defroster, which should bleed warm engine air, now only gives cold.
View 3 Replies1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse. 2.0L 5-speed. 195,000. When I complete my 33 mile trip home and shut off engine, I can hear air bubbling into the overflow tank from radiator. Temp gauge shows normal. Just had new water pump, thermostat, radiator flush and refill and new 16 lb radiator cap installed. Overflow tank fills up to near top (not running over) and when engine cools, the tank is back down to half way. I've checked water level in radiator when cool and it is full. Question: Is this normal? Don't think I've ever noticed or heard the bubbling sound before. The engine runs great and smoothly.
View 5 RepliesMy wife has a 2005 Equinox and we discovered an oil residue in the coolant pressure tank. I wanted to diagnose the problem myself and hopefully rule out a blown head gasket. I flushed the system and replaced the hoses that had began to break down. I dove the car for a while and let it sit overnight. Sure enough the oil came back. This time it was blackish put couldn't really tell. The 3400 engine in the Equinox has no pressure on the top of the engine while running so transmission cooler must be the culprit. I ordered a new radiator and the broke one sat in the shop over the weekend and while it was there it drained. The milky fluid leaked out and separated from the coolant. I then knew it was trans fluid because it was red after separating. Changed the radiator and the problem is fixed. One thing I did learn is head gasket doesn't mean engine killer.
View 6 RepliesI have a 97 F-150 and my Radiator fluid has been leaking very bad but hasn't been taking the fluid from overflow tank. Actually the new fluid that I put in the overflow has now turned a rusty color....
View 3 RepliesJust finished a timing belt job on my 93 celica 5sfe. Filled the coolant up and burped engine. All seems to be well. My question is related to the coolant overflow tank. The cap has a hose attached on one end coming from the radiator and another coming out the other side that is short and L shaped. The L shaped hose isn't attached to anything and is open allowing air to either vent out or vent in to the overflow tank. There isn't any place nearby where the hose might attach to. Is this hose supposed to be "unattached" as it is now or should it be closed to create vacuum for the overflow tank to allow coolant back in to the radiator?
View 4 RepliesI got a 64 F100 with a 292 that I am thinking of installing a coolant overflow tank on to aliviate having to fill the radiator frequently.
The question being............Is it a sealed system or do I need to provide an air bleed to adjust for the presure change within the cylinder I intend to use?
I realise that thermal syphoning will return the coolant to the radiator but am unsure as to weather or not I need to allow the airspace to remain at atmospheric pressure.
I have owned my 2005 v10 ex since 60000 miles. Have had many dependable family road trips and love my truck.
Recently it has started puking coolant and the overflow tank smells like exhaust. The oil cap has some coolant sludge on it. But there is no coolant mixed with the oil. Or oil in the coolant.
I am pretty certain these are the signs of failing head gaskets. The truck has 193000 miles on it now.
Want to keep it on course. But keep it reliable. So do I buy new engine or do I just replace head gaskets?
So I have a 2005 Dodge Stratus. It must be a year old model because most of the parts and engine wise are of the 2006 model. Well earlier in Feb/March I had to get my timing belt and heads changed due to the bending. After that my car was working fine, but my coolant overflow tank kept losing coolant. Had that fixed with the repair shop as well. After that it seemed that my car was working well. Then it started to overheat, and I was informed that my lower radiator hose had a small leak. I had that fixed as well. This is when the constant overheating started.
I assumed that the air needed to be removed from the system. So I had it bleed, and then it seemed to work well, but that was not true seeing as my car continued to overheat of the cold air was on. The only thing that keeps it working is if I turn the heater on. That cools the system off. So now everyday I have to keep letting air out of the radiators, and run the heater if it gets too hot.
I just noticed today that my thermostat housing bolts have coolant on them whenever the engine gets to hot. Do you think it's not right enough, or my radiator cap may be bad?
Replacements:
Head gasket
Thermostat
Radiator hoses
I believe the cap of the radiator as well.
I have a 2002 Ford Explorer and I am still trying to figure out why the coolant will overflow in the radiator reserve tank. I put in a new thermostat and a new cap to the overflow tank. When the tank is cold, sat over night, I put in new anti-freeze to the cold coolant line. Then I start up the explorer and let it run for a while. The temp gauge goes up, then drops a tad and cold air comes out of the vents.
After I rev up the engine, I see the coolant level starts to rise in the overflow tank, then it goes to the top and starts to leak out. This takes a while being the thermostat has not kicked in to suck the fluid in. Before this happens, the heater core lines are luke warm. After the tank overflows, the remaining gets sucked into the engine and I get nice warm heat. What causes this. I had the test done to see if the head gasket is bad. The test was negative.
Anyway here's the problem. My son has a 2000 Ranger 3.0L V6 he left me when he had to move back up to Las Vegas. I was out checking it out today and pulled the radiator cap, man what a mess. It looks like reddish mud in there and the overflow tank. It's not milky like oil in there it's more like mud. It's caked up on the bottom of the cap and inside the filler neck and the coolant looks the same.
So the questions are, what's the best way to clean it all out and what would cause it?
I have an 04 gti 1.8t and last night it started over heating. I pulled over and checked the coolant and the oil but everything looked good. I let it cool down and drove it home. When I popped the hood there was a little steam coming from the coolant overflow tank but I saw no leaking. I decided to vent the pressure off the system and then I got a little drip on the passenger side close to where the inter cooler is. I can't pinpoint the leak though.
View 4 RepliesSo I have been troubleshooting a few cooling issues and I am currently at a loss of WTF is going on with this thing. The truck is a 99 5.4L SD and has no heat and was burping a little coolant.
The truck was originally burping coolant out of the overflow tank. After verifying that it was not a head gasket by all means except the exhaust gas test. I replaced the overflow tank and cap.
Now the truck is holding pressure fine but I do not have heat. Here is what I have done:
I replaced the blend door actuator--no heat
I went to flush the heater core and since the quick disconnects were such a bitch to get off I decided ti replace it while I was at it. --still no heat,
New thermostat 195 deg --no heat
The radiator is brand new
Supposedly the water pump was replaced by the previous owner I have all the receipts for the truck so I could double check
Truck seems to circulate coolant fine i measured temps at the water outlet with an IR thermometer peaking at about 175~10 deg due to accuracy of the thermometer and heat loss due to thermal variations the lower radiator hose and reservoir coolant temps were around 76~10 degrees so the radiator is working as advertised . Truck doesn't overheat, granted after draining and replacing the coolant the temp gauge did climb some while driving until i worked out all the air pockets but still didn't overheat.
On my car which never overheated but one day the overflow for the radiator started gurgling and I turned off the car fast and brought to our mechanic and he advised that it was head gasket after changing hoses and water pump. when I first realized the gurgling and shut off the car and never ran it again did i save the engine and replacing the head gasket is a good thing. also did I save the head from warping by my actions?
View 13 RepliesHaving a problem with the 2008 Sonata GLS. When filling gas tank, pump nozzle clicks off, but gas flow continues, creating a significant spillage.
View 7 RepliesI just noticed this morning that the coolant tank (close to radiator) is empty. The other coolant tank level is normal. Big surprise! I thought they are connected, and coolant can flow between them.
View 5 RepliesLast week during a hot/long day on the road, my engine temp gauge started fluctuating between 1/2 and almost 7/8 on the gauge. The weird thing was that it was fairly stable most of the time, but every 10 minutes or so, it would heat up, and spend bout 15 seconds at the high mark before dropping down again. It didn't seem to be related to rpm, A/C operation, or driving intensity. When I got home, and let it cool down, I checked the coolant level. I couldn't see any coolant in the radiator, but the expansion tank was nearly full. I guess the low coolant level can explain the symptoms above, but I can't figure out what is happening to the coolant.
I took the car to a mechanic and had a pressure test, which didn't show any leakage. I had a new thermostat and radiator cap installed. They flushed the system, and tested the hose between the expansion tank and radiator. After driving the car home, the coolant in the radiator had already dropped to the point where I couldn't see it, and the expansion tank was 3/4 full. Now, I am planning to keep track of the levels of both reservoirs (and refilling the radiator of course) to see if the fluid is leaking, or if it is just not returning from the expansion tank. Hopefully this bit of knowledge should locate the problem.
The successful pressure test leads me to believe that it isn't leaking externally. However, I'm wondering if there is a small enough leak that wouldn't be detected by the pressure test, but is significant enough that it would allow air in when the engine cools instead of pulling the fluid back from the expansion tank.
06 6.0
Goes from max to min line on degaus bottle every couple months. No puking or white residue. Going to pull egr tonight and see if damp. Anything else to check besides obvious leaks at hoses/radiator/etc?
Having an issue with my 03' Accent. I'm having an issue of my coolant tank filling up but it is not being drawn back into the radiator when the engine cools down. I have replaced the radiator with a new unit because the filler neck of the original radiator was damaged sometime in the past and the cap would not seal good enough to hold pressure . Looks like heat damage to me but I don't know for sure. The system now holds pressure but now I'm having the current issue. My first thought was a head gasket issue creating pressure in the system and forcing coolant into the tank.
The car has 155k miles and runs good overall and is not overheating. I performed a "block check" test using the chemical method that detects combustion gasses in the cooling system and that test was negative. I also pressure tested the system by pressurizing to 16 psi and was unable to detect any leaks anywhere on the engine / radiator and the pressure did not drop until I released it. I guess the next thing to try will be a compression test to see if I have any low cylinders. So, for whatever reason my cooling system is not creating enough of a vacuum to draw the coolant back into the radiator when it cools down. Does this sound like a head gasket issue? The pic is of the original radiator filler neck damage.
2007, 4.0L, Explorer, 113,000 mi. Week ago noticed coolant expansion tank empty while hot and cold. Looked inside ex. tank and looked like it had not seen any action in a while. Looked inside radiator and coolant level was about 1 inch to 1.5 inches below bottom of rad. cap would be...approx. level with rad. seam, where black plastic top of rad. attaches to metal portion of rad. I filled expan. tank to "cold fill" line. Kept an eye on it while doing light, around town driving. The expan. tank level (cold-fill) didn't change.
Friday, my wife returned from work (30 mi., interstate drive). After being parked for 45 mins, went out to find fluid puddle at very front of car. Expansion tank was empty. Looked in radiator, and it was about one inch to inch and a half below bottom of rad cap...about level with rad seam, where the black plastic top is attached to metal. I topped off the rad. this time, along with filling expan. tank to cold-fill line. Turn car on, and after warming up coolant starting coming out from what appeared to be the seam at the top of the rad., where the black plastic portion meets the metal part of the rad.
Have an 02 Camry 4 cylinder. The car retains pressure overnight in the radiator - the morning after driving the release of the radiator cap produces air bubbles in the over flow tank and a noticeable hiss of air from the filler neck. Car is not running hot and no CELs. Fluid is not being pulled into the radiator from reservoir after driving due to high pressure.
Here's what I have checked so far:
Exhaust - no white smoke
Oil - Looks fine no evidence of antifreeze
Replaced radiator cap
Hoses and clamps appear to be good
No fluid leaks found
Compression - all cylinders 145 psi +/- 1 psi
Exhaust gases in radiator - no evidence, fluid remained blue after test
Bleed air from system - was hearing the "waterfall" noise from within dashboard when accelerating. Put car on ramps, took rad cap off and ran for 45 minutes. Saw lots of big air bubbles at first then bubbles stopped. The overnight pressure retention stopped for about 2 weeks / 150 miles - but now has returned.
So it seems clear that air is being pulled into the radiator from somewhere. Beginning to think I have a small head gasket leak that is not showing any other signs. Any other potential source that could cause air to be pulled into the radiator?