Coolant Disappearing

[brichard0625]

Just checked coolant while the car was hot, and all the coolant is to the top but when the car is cold it shows low...not sure if thats normal

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by brichard0625

Just checked coolant while the car was hot, and all the coolant is to the top but when the car is cold it shows low...not sure if thats normal

Coolant expands when it's hot, so that behavior is normal. As to whether or not the values you see are normal, I can't comment.

[King Tut]

As long as it continues to show correctly while warm, then you aren't losing any.

[SmsAlSuwaidi]

Originally Posted by King Tut

As long as it continues to show correctly while warm, then you aren't losing any.

Care to expand on that ? I recently noticed that my coolant is barley over the low mark once it sits over a day or two, but after a long drive its almost full ! Should I just top it off or take it to the dealer , considering I'm going to boost my car soon I'm trying to figure out any issues I have

[zoomzoomers]

Rule of thumb: if you measure/check your coolant levels when warm then continute to do so when warm. If you check when cold do so when cold. Just don't mix between the two as someone stated earlier coolant does expand due to temperature.

This issue does seem weird to me. Hope you guys get it figured out. GL.

Originally Posted by SmsAlSuwaidi

Care to expand on that ? I recently noticed that my coolant is barley over the low mark once it sits over a day or two, but after a long drive its almost full ! Should I just top it off or take it to the dealer , considering I'm going to boost my car soon I'm trying to figure out any issues I have

[SmsAlSuwaidi]

Originally Posted by zoomzoomers

Rule of thumb: if you measure/check your coolant levels when warm then continute to do so when warm. If you check when cold do so when cold. Just don't mix between the two as someone stated earlier coolant does expand due to temperature.

This issue does seem weird to me. Hope you guys get it figured out. GL.

That's what I'm currently doing and noticed when cold ( haven't been driven for a day or two ) it's barley above low


After letting it warm up, and driving to Uni (4sh minutes) it's over 1/4, a 15 minute drive gives me a 1/2 reading

What's weird is after a very long drive 1hour or so it's 3/4 full

I'm lost, I do know coolant tends to expand but that much ?

[civicdrivr]

Originally Posted by SmsAlSuwaidi

I'm lost, I do know coolant tends to expand but that much ?

This is my issue as well.

When stone cold (sitting for 24+ hours), the radiator itself is down ~2" and the overflow tank is halfway between min and max.

When hot, obviously I don't open the rad cap, but the overflow is about 1/4" above max. That's a huge variation between cold and hot coolant levels.

I haven't had the time to have the compression tested by a trusted mechanic yet, but I'm still planning on it.

Sent from my Nexus 4

[SmsAlSuwaidi]

Originally Posted by civicdrivr

This is my issue as well.

When stone cold (sitting for 24+ hours), the radiator itself is down ~2" and the overflow tank is halfway between min and max.

When hot, obviously I don't open the rad cap, but the overflow is about 1/4" above max. That's a huge variation between cold and hot coolant levels.

I haven't had the time to have the compression tested by a trusted mechanic yet, but I'm still planning on it.

Sent from my Nexus 4

All my readings and assumptions are off the overflow tank, I haven't peaked into the raditor yet. Do you just pop the cap open and look in there ( when cool obviously ) ?

[King Tut]

You guys are worrying too much. As long as you have some coolant in your overflow, then don't worry about it.

[SmsAlSuwaidi]

Originally Posted by King Tut

You guys are worrying too much. As long as you have some coolant in your overflow, then don't worry about it.

thats what i thought ! i told my self as long as my car didn't over heat yet I'm good

[civicdrivr]

Originally Posted by King Tut

You guys are worrying too much. As long as you have some coolant in your overflow, then don't worry about it.

I'm really hoping thats the case, but the white smoke out of my exhaust while on the dyno concerned me. Same with the compression test that the dealer did. If anything, the compression should rise when warm, not the drop (which is what it did).

[vgi]

i bought my car a month ago, couple of days later noticed an occasional coolant smell under a load (around 4k rpm, still breaking in the engine so try no to rev it above 4k). took it to the dealer, they said they didn't find any leaks (though I think it was just a visual, the guy said the car is hot, so the system is under pressure, there is no point of doing pressure test). anyways, I put a tape on the coolant reservoir in a morning, while the engine is cold, the mileage was just like 50. Now I have just under 800, one month later, the coolant level is about 3/4-1" down, checked again in a morning.

I just did a quick search for 'coolant' in the topic of a thread and a decent amount of threads came up. It looks like the coolant level drops fairly rapidly for lots of people, yet no one in the threads I looked through were able to determine why. Just seems like it just evaporates at a higher rate when it overflows hot into the coolant reservoir.

Curious to see if there will be a reasonable explanation in this thread or if it will just die off like the rest of them

[civicdrivr]

Well, coolant doesn't evaporate, so its not that. I will figure out what the issue is, but it may take some time.

Sent from my Nexus 4

[vgi]

sounds good, just please post here whatever you find, don't let the thread die without resolution

Originally Posted by civicdrivr

Well, coolant doesn't evaporate, so its not that. I will figure out what the issue is, but it may take some time.

Sent from my Nexus 4