2g losing coolant fast

[Retrostylz]

Hello,

My Eagle Talon is losing coolant very fast. I will have to fill up the radiator daily. I flushed the rad and it seemed to work for a few days, and I switched the rad cap and it was doing well. But now I'm losing coolant again and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. It will sometimes bubble out of the overflow but after getting a new reservoir it hasn't bubbled out since.
I've checked for leaks, none that I could find. Tried a white towel under the car and let it idle for 10 minutes, and it still didn't show any signs of leaking. I don't see any coolant residue anywhere but I'm going to get a black light and check again tonight after work. Any other suggestions will be helpful.

The car does not overheat, it starts and drives fine. No loss of power or any idle surge. No white smoke. No milky oil. I recently did a DSMlink v3 tune and the shop did a compression and leak down test, which turned out fine.

I do not want to rule out the head gasket yet, but I see no evidence of it being blown, so I want to try some other methods and see if it clears up the problem. Right now I'm thinking a bad water pump or t-stat? Maybe the heater core? What would cause such an extreme loss of coolant without any overheating?

Thank you in advance.

 

[fastfred]

Go to the parts store and ask if they rent/borrow a pressure tester. It should come with directions. Its easy or buy one to have all the time theyre not that expensive.

 

[NordicSaab]

Fast Fred nailed it. Pressure tester is the way to go...

When you did the white towel test did you let the coolant system get up to operating temperature? Sometimes leaks will only occur in the coolant system when gully pressurized.

 

[Retrostylz]

I did let it idle for a good 10 minutes but maybe a little longer will do the trick. I'll head up to Auto Zone today and pick up a pressure tester. Thanks for the suggestions. Any other ideas I will take into consideration!

 

[miliman13]

test that!!

But idel wont show you S%^t. I had a leak and it was not present under idle only under load and travel. You may have a tiny tiny hole enough to cause the pressure to boil and evaporate rather then actually leak.

Check you TB and heater lines, those motherf$%^s like to go bad.

 

[miliman13]

gully

 

[NordicSaab]

That's so gully of you...

 

[93tsi6bolt]

I just dealt with this same issue last week. My hg was blown and causing me to push exhaust into my coolant system but would only do it under load and boost. The car ran great just would evaporate all my coolant and cause it to start getting warm. I did a chemical test and a pressure test and neither of them showed the leak.

 

[mercaholik]

Really, the chemical test should have shown that exhaust gases where in the coolant. Maybe it was defective or not sensitive enough, a shop has electronic sniffers that should pick it up if need be.

 

[Lou98GSX]

the best way for checking a bad head gasket is a leak down test . you put pressure in one cylinder at a time and watch for the antifreeze to slowly rise .

 

[NHerron]

Leakdown sometimes won't show either. Specifically if the leak is just developing. Even 200psi is no where near cylinder pressures when idling let alone under boost. Eventually though, the leak should get bad enough to show in a leakdown.

With no water surrounding the coolant sensor, its readings are going to be wrong and you most likely won't even know its overheating. Its possible under boost, that cylinder pressure leaks into coolant and immdiatly pops the rad cap and pushes coolant without even effecting temp. Dumps enough coolant and sensor won't be able to read the water and there ya go.

If that were the case I'd go do a long good hard pull up a nasty steep hill and check the overflow tank before and after said pull. When its cold, fill radiator after checking for leaks, and put maybe 1/4quart in the overflow. Mark the level. Then do normal driving for an hour or so and check again. Make a second mark. Now find Mr nastyhill and haul balls.

 

[93tsi6bolt]

Yeah mine only did it under load. I work at a shop and used a sniff tester as well.

 

[mercaholik]

Good to know, I guess sometimes you gotta make and educated guess, even if the diagnostic test "says" it's good.

 

[93tsi6bolt]

Yup some times it's all you can do