wheres my coolant going?, hummm Options

[urbandork]

every few months and sometimes sooner my car tends to start over heating. when i go to open up the burp tank and radiator i find that im super low on coolant. Usually when my car starts to randomly heat up and cool off i figure its the thermostat going bad BUT As soon as i fill my car up with coolant the over heating problem goes away and regular engine temp stays the same with no flucuations.

So i figure it must be me loosing water/coolant somwhere. Ive look at the radiator as well as the burp tank and when full and with the engine running there appear to be no leaks or cracks with water drippin from it. Nor is there water/coolant drippin out from my car both while sitting and driving.

I then figured maybe a gasket went bad and im dumpin water in to my oil/cylinders. So ive checked the oil regularly and find that the oil is clean (well its oil clean lol) NO MILK in my oil so im sure im not losing water to my engine.

Where else should i check?

What else maybe wrong?

thanks.

[darksecret]

The coolant fairy is taking it, lol. Seriously look at your heater core, sometimes those leak.

[urbandork]

humm that brings me to wonder. Some times when i have the AC on smoke or mist will come out of the vents i dont know which one but it looks more like smoke. At first i thought maybe it was the cold air hitting the warm. Think this could be the problem?

[vangSTa_celica]

I'd flush out the whole system.

[CelicaST18]

could ba a bad head gasket

[urbandork]

could ba a bad head gasket
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if its that wouldnt i find water mixed in with my oil or coming out of the head somewhere?

[Rjb23]

could ba a bad head gasket
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if its that wouldnt i find water mixed in with my oil or coming out of the head somewhere?
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Possibly, but if its not really that bad you may just be blowing it out your tail pipe in the form of white smoke. Drive your car for a little let it get warmed up then look for leaks. It may be overflowing or something.

A simple compression test will let you know if you head gasket is blown or not.

This post has been edited by Rjb23: May 11, 2005 - 9:56 PM

[darksecret]

Is your A/C on when you see the mist or just the blower? If it's the blower then check the core. This is off topic, but are you on toyota nation?

This post has been edited by darksecret: May 12, 2005 - 10:05 AM

[urbandork]

Is your A/C on when you see the mist or just the blower? If it's the blower then check the core. This is off topic, but are you on toyota nation?
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honestly ive forgoten as it hasnt happend for some time as i hardly use the AC but ill check it summer time lol turbo first.

btw i am on TN why do u ask?

[darksecret]

I just signed up there and seen your screename so I figured I would ask. It's hard to tell if I know anyone from here there.

[lagos]

if you have smoke coming out of your heater vent, then your heter core is shot and needs to be replaced. i had the same thing happen to and old taurus that i had years ago.

that smoke, is your coolant leaking and burning. its really bad stuff to breath in so get it fixed as soon as you can. since its summer time, you could do a temp fix by taking off the 2 water hoses that go to the core though the firewall, and join the hoses together. this will bypass the core and stop the coolan loss and smoke.

[darksecret]

That's what I didn't know, if the Celicas heater core was in the passenger compartment or engine bay. My Sierra had the same problem so I just bypassed the core, sucks not having heat in NC, i've been to Philie to so I bet it was bad there without it also.

[urbandork]

that would explain the smell of coolant lol hahaa omg. And the fact ath i lost coolant after prolonged use of the heat when driving with the windows down when its cold haha.

how much does it cost to fix?

[darksecret]

Best to replace, I don't remember the cost, but you should be able to get one from Autozone.

[lagos]

the core is cheap (20-30$) but make sure you do it yourself cause laybor on this type of thing goes for around 600$. i never chenged one out, but from what i understand, you have to remove the whole dash and a ton of stuff behind it to get to the core. a real pain in the ass.

[urbandork]

weekend project i guess