Coolant Disappearing

[civicdrivr]

I brought my car home 5/16/2012. Sometime in July I noticed that the coolant level in the reservoir was low. I chalked it up to possibly not being fully burped at the factory, so I topped it off (just above the min mark when cold).

Fast forward to mid-December - Due to the somewhat warm winter up to that point I had not stored the car yet. I noticed that the coolant was low once again, not by much, so I put another small amount of coolant in (again, just above the min mark when cold).

Then on 5/2/2013 I noticed the same, thing, so I put a bit more into it.

On 5/4/2013 there was a dyno day, and at that point I noticed my car was blowing white smoke out of the exhaust at high RPMs (video below, thanks @xjohnx). When I got home, the coolant in the tank had dropped about 2" from where it was two days prior. I had put maybe 200 miles on it during that span. I had done an oil change and didnt see any coolant in the oil. I didn't have any jars that I could capture some oil with to have it analyzed, unfortunately.

[ame]http://youtu.be/6RAdhC1yzE4[/ame]

I made an appointment online with Toyota for the first available timeslot, 5/8 @ 8am. I didn't drive the car anywhere during that time. I brought it to them, they opened a techline case, scoped the cylinders (they said one had a bit of buildup in it) and did a compression test.

When cold, the cylinders are consistent. When hot, one cylinder is low. I will be getting the compression numbers when I pick up the car in the morning. The dealer says all signs are pointing to a defective head gasket (which was my first inclination as well), but Toyota has said to not do anything on the car, just note the current levels and if they drop any further, to bring the car back right away.

I'm a little pissed that the dealer can see that there is an issue with the car, but corporate is saying wait for it to break completely. The reason I bought this car was because A) its a lightweight RWD sportscar but most importantly B) it's brand new and supposed to be reliable. As the temperatures rise and I begin to use the air conditioning on a daily basis, I'm not very confident driving this car anymore knowing that at some point its going to potentially overheat and damage other parts. My livelihood depends on solid transportation as I average anywhere from 600 to 1,000 miles every week.

What do you guys think I should do? Is there any way to get Toyota to fix this before it becomes a much larger issue? The last thing I want is to be stranded while on my way to work, losing out on hours.

[civicdrivr]

Also, I should note, the dealer attempted to tell me that the car was heavily modified and they weren't sure this would be covered under the warranty.

Engine mods:
-SRT Headerback exhaust
-Perrin lightweight crank pulley
-Crawford AOS

All other mods are visual or suspension.

Then they questioned me about forced induction, to which I responded with an emphatic NO, its never been turbo'd or supercharged. They also alluded to every bolt in the engine bay being touched, which is true, because I've replaced the stock hardware with stainless steel button head bolts. They have since backed down on the car being "heavily modified".

[Tt3Sheppard]

I would probably put the stock pulley back on they might give you an issue about that. I would also complain to corporate and get it fixed, you are not a test mule for the car.

[xjohnx]

Torture test time!

[civicdrivr]

[civicdrivr]

OK, picked the car up from the dealer today. According to the paperwork:

- When cold, the cylinders did not lose any pressure over the course of 5 hours.

- When hot, there was a 4psi drop in 15 minutes. I asked which cylinder this was occurring on, but the SA couldn't answer that and the technician was off today. I will find out next week.

Sent from my Nexus 4

[civicdrivr]

I spoke with a tech that is much more familiar with building engines and Subies in general. He said it sounds like the cylinder sleeve/liner isn't level with the block deck, which is why the compression is dropping when hot and not so much when cold.

Now to find a way to get Toyota to fix this before it becomes a larger issue.

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by civicdrivr

OK, picked the car up from the dealer today. According to the paperwork:

- When cold, the cylinders did not lose any pressure over the course of 5 hours.

- When hot, there was a 4psi drop in 15 minutes. I asked which cylinder this was occurring on, but the SA couldn't answer that and the technician was off today. I will find out next week.

[civicdrivr]

Originally Posted by OrbitalEllipses

What are your thoughts on this? Think its a bad block as well.

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by civicdrivr

What are your thoughts on this? Think its a bad block as well.

Dropping compression when hot? Bad block. I'd imagine a valve leaking would show under cold conditions. No ifs ands or buts now comes making Toyota foot the bill...

[civicdrivr]

Originally Posted by OrbitalEllipses

Dropping compression when hot? Bad block. I'd imagine a valve leaking would show under cold conditions. No ifs ands or buts now comes making Toyota foot the bill...

Thank you, this confirms what the other tech mentioned. Now to lean on Toyota.

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by civicdrivr

Thank you, this confirms what the other tech mentioned. Now to lean on Toyota.

Not to mention coolant disappearing wouldn't be a valve-related problem unless your headgasket was FUBAR'd? The liner diagnosis sounds correct...

[King Tut]

Are you doing all these coolant checks when the engine is hot or cold? How much coolant in total do you feel you have lost and over the course of how many miles?

[civicdrivr]

Originally Posted by OrbitalEllipses

Not to mention coolant disappearing wouldn't be a valve-related problem unless your headgasket was fFUBAR'd? The liner diagnosis sounds correct...

My initial thought was a defective head gasket. I explained the symptoms to the dealer but had them draw their own conclusions, and they were thinking head gasket as well. But it threw up a red flag when they said it loses compression when hot but not cold, I just wanted to hear from someone else to confirm my suspicions.

Originally Posted by King Tut

Are you doing all these coolant checks when the engine is hot or cold? How much coolant in total do you feel you have lost and over the course of how many miles?

I check it when cold, usually after sitting at least 6 hours (most of the time overnight though).

The car currently has just over 25k miles. I've added maybe 1/2 a gallon

Also to note - The very first time that I noticed the coolant was low, the only modifications to the car was tires/wheels.