Coolant Disappearing

[Accurate Race Shop]

Originally Posted by Muaddib

There should NOT be any coolant lost. Unless the headgasket is blown or there is a leak somewhere.

Mine was at the low line today when I put my koyorad on it today. I did see about 6 drops worth of black oil rise out of the new radiator but that is just oils from assembly from what I was told.

Sent from my Q10

[civicdrivr]

OK, since I was too tired after work to get on the computer, I'll just paste what I told @xjohnx (with some additional info).

I drove out of my way and came into work late just to be told by the dealer that the field engineer wasn't able to get there today. So I spent all of 7 minutes talking to the service manager. This is easily something I could've done over the phone.

But I digress...

They said the reason its being good willed is that the field tech looked at the black box readings and saw that the car was over revved. I immediately requested a print out of it and he said they don't have it but can get it. Then he added that the tech saw 8500 rpm. I was cruising on 76 (toll road in Richmond) @ ~65mph when the ticking started. I'm pretty damn sure I was in 6th and not 2nd. I did drive the car somewhat hard earlier in the day because I was running late, but it didn't over rev it. (Note - "hard" = fast, not flooring it to redline).

And apparently the rocker arm didn't break, it "shot off the hydraulic lifter" after floating from the supposed overrev.

He asked me if I've tracked the car (nope) or if its been turbod or supercharged (not yet). He also asked what I was doing when it happened, to which I told him cruising at a steady speed on my way home during a rainy day.

He then said "since you have a wideband and catch can, that's not what most people have on their NA cars". I agreed for the most part, but explained how its cheap insurance and I was planning on supercharging it in a few years and didn't want any oil residue in the combustion chamber. And the wideband sensor (nothing else, just the O2) was installed three days before I brought the car in the first time.

I pressed the coolant issue again and explained how its been doing it since new. He said that these cars do use a bit of coolant and create a bit of condensation, so that's probably the smoke from the exhaust. I also requested the compression test numbers, which cylinder it was that they saw build up, and what cylinder the rocker arm is being replaced on. All info that they didn't have, but said that I will be provided with when I pick up the car.

So that's where I am now, basically no new substantial info.

I really want to see that data from the black box. I'd know damn well if I downshifted when I shouldn't have (as that's the only way to theoretically hit 8500rpm). To sum up the previous 500 miles before heading to the dealer:

June 1st - Drove to Charlotte. It was a hot day, A/C was on. I was averaging ~70mph the entire trip, but there were areas where I was in a line of cars going 80-90mph. Got home around 9pm and parked the car for the night. Off highway driving consisted on 1-4 gears with a max speed of about 45. No WOT driving as I was low on gas (filled up before leaving Charlotte).

June 2nd - Rainy day, left for work around 1:30 in the afternoon. Traffic near a mall by my house, only ~5miles on that doing 35-40mph. Then 20 miles worth of highway doing 70-75mph. I think I brought it to ~6k rpms when getting on the highway the first time. The car sat for 11 hours at work. When I was pulling out of my work parking lot, I heard something from the rear suspension. I thought it was tire rub as I just got new, wider tires on the car. So I drove easy the entire way home with the radio off. Half way home I heard the ticking from the front end. The rest of the story has already been posted.



I'm heading out of town tomorrow, but I'll be calling the dealer in the morning and asking the service manager to send me all of the data they have.

PS - Prius' suck gigantic ****.

Sent from my Nexus 4

[xXDeathMaliCeXx]

Tuned in to see what happens...good luck!

[OrbitalEllipses]

Interesting...

[Lonewolf]

So they have all this incriminating info huh? Great, let's see it.

Revved to 8500 rpm...isn't that long after fuel cut?

Sounds like they saw the catch can and wideband and inferred that you were some kind of racer without properly investigating the coolant issue...

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

So they have all this incriminating info huh? Great, let's see it.

Revved to 8500 rpm...isn't that long after fuel cut?

Sounds like they saw the catch can and wideband and inferred that you were some kind of racer without properly investigating the coolant issue...

The constantly unavailable field engineer is just the cherry on top.

[Lonewolf]

Originally Posted by OrbitalEllipses

The constantly unavailable field engineer is just the cherry on top.

Seriously, sounds suspect...

I really hope that headgasket issues aren't the next thing on the horizon for this platform...

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

Seriously, sounds suspect...

I really hope that headgasket issues aren't the next thing on the horizon for this platform...

You'd hope Subaru figured it out on their next generation engine...

At this point @civicdrivr, I would a) contact the dealership GM and tell them that they need to better communicate the availability of the field engineer and b) contact Toyota/Scion and express dissatisfaction with the dealership's communication AND field engineer's unavailability/dealership's inability to communicate this unavailability...and see if they'll give you the name/number of this engineer.

[civicdrivr]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

Sounds like they saw the catch can and wideband and inferred that you were some kind of racer without properly investigating the coolant issue...

Yea, that's exactly how it sounds to me. The service manager told me that the field engineer is a "tuner guy" (his words) and the manager himself drives an IROC-Z, and they know cars.

A) That's means nothing to me.
B) They better know about cars if they're working in the service department.

Originally Posted by OrbitalEllipses

You'd hope Subaru figured it out on their next generation engine...

At this point @civicdrivr, I would a) contact the dealership GM and tell them that they need to better communicate the availability of the field engineer and b) contact Toyota/Scion and express dissatisfaction with the dealership's communication AND field engineer's unavailability/dealership's inability to communicate this unavailability...and see if they'll give you the name/number of this engineer.

These are my next moves. I will contact Toyota today after work, if not, in the morning.

Sent from my Nexus 4

[OrbitalEllipses]

IROC-Z?

[xjohnx]

is this the service manager?

[vgi]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

I really hope that headgasket issues aren't the next thing on the horizon for this platform...

that makes me a bit worried.

in a week i'll be doing an oil change, that's the reason i'm thinking if I should ask them to get me some oil so I could send it to blackstone for coolant testing. last time when I reported an occasional coolant smell at about 20mi on ODO they said it might still be from factory (check for visual leaks, found nothing, and that was it). That'd be ok but I had coolant at top mark, now it' in a middle between high/low marks with less than 2k on ODO, although I don't notice coolant smell anymore, well maybe just an occasional faint but i'm not 100% positive. any suggestion on how to persuade them to do anything, besides the usual "it's normal" ?

[Lonewolf]

Originally Posted by vgi

that makes me a bit worried.

in a week i'll be doing an oil change, that's the reason i'm thinking if I should ask them to get me some oil so I could send it to blackstone for coolant testing. last time when I reported an occasional coolant smell at about 20mi on ODO they said it might still be from factory (check for visual leaks, found nothing, and that was it). That'd be ok but I had coolant at top mark, now it' in a middle between high/low marks with less than 2k on ODO, although I don't notice coolant smell anymore, well maybe just an occasional faint but i'm not 100% positive. any suggestion on how to persuade them to do anything, besides the usual "it's normal" ?

Heck, I would do it for piece of mind. If you are concerned, take a sample yourself (siphon pump should get you enough for blackstone).

Some early 8th gen civics started emitting coolant smells right before the blocks started showing cracks and you can guess what happened next if the cracks weren't spotted in time...

Granted, it wasn't a headgasket issue, but smelling coolant when the car hasn't been refilled or the overflow tank hasn't belched itself is a bad thing.

[vgi]

@civicdrivr this thread is kind of similar to your problem: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...t=19672&page=6