Coolant loss when hot and under load only?

[Ice Racer]

When I bought the car I noticed it was low on coolant. Topped it up and a few days later it's low again (Note it's not my dd. It sits in my garage and waits for me to work on it after work). Hmm, there's no spill on the floor of my garage. Check the dipstick for chocolate milk...nope. Oil's still good. No blue smoke to suggest I'm burning it up. No funny burnt coolant smell either. Top it up again, take it for a quick boot around the block and after I park it I see a trail of coolant following me back to my house. WTF?

It doesn't leak while in the garage. Like, not even a spot on the ground. It's not going into the oil so it seems the head gasket's holding up. But when I drive it I lose copious amounts of it. What gives? I can't see evidence of it being sprayed all under the hood or splashed up on any parts.

Also, there's no trail leaving my house. Only returning suggesting it's happening when the engine really warms up.

Why is it happening?

 

[Drubble]

Sounds like a hose/clamp someplace is the suspect. I was having a similar problem and ended up raising up the front end and letting it run for awhile until I could see the leaking antifreeze and isolate the problem. Turned out to be as simple as a loose clamp.

 

[spyderturbo007]

The first place I would look is where the main water pipe connects to the water pump. Mine was leaking there, but only when it was running.

 

[Bigglesworth87]

Do a pressure test to see where its leaking from. I had a bad radiator cap and it was causing the cooling to back feed through the hose that goes to the over flow tank. So much pressure built up through there that it just started to leak out of the top of the hose near the radiator cap. ALSO, my thermostat housing bolts were loose and I was losing coolant from there as well. Good luck

 

[fwdmaster]

It could be your cap not holding pressure or old hoses that leak that causes this problem.

 

[Ice Racer]

It could be your cap not holding pressure or old hoses that leak that causes this problem.

The cap was an issue with the previous owner. He replaced it with a locking cap. I don't see any coolant residue around there to suggest the levels of fluid loss seen on the street. It's like I was dragging an alien carcass around.

 

[fwdmaster]

So your car is not overheating and it's not the cap ,so I think it's just the hoses and clamps around the thermostat housing that are worn out and causes to leak,just replace all your hoses and use different clamps

 

[Gs Dewd]

Top it off then go for a good hard drive. Make a full second or third gear pull then pull over quickly and check the overflow bottle. If it is fuller or running out of the over flow then you have a head gasket leaking. I had the same thing happen to me. What happens is your pushing combustion gasses into the coolant passages and pushing the coolant out through the overflow. With this you will not have any water into the oil. You can let the car idle all day long and it will have no problem it just show up when your pushing the car hard or going for a long drive (which is when I notice I had a problem).

 

[Ice Racer]

Top it off then go for a good hard drive. Make a full second or third gear pull then pull over quickly and check the overflow bottle. If it is fuller or running out of the over flow then you have a head gasket leaking. I had the same thing happen to me. What happens is your pushing combustion gasses into the coolant passages and pushing the coolant out through the overflow. With this you will not have any water into the oil. You can let the car idle all day long and it will have no problem it just show up when your pushing the car hard or going for a long drive (which is when I notice I had a problem).

Holy poop I hope it's not that!

I'm going to get it on jack stands tonight and see WTH is going on.