No coolant. Dealership can't find it
 

So my oil was changed and car serviced by the dealership (I know, I know) about 3 months ago. I've since put only 2k miles on the car. Sunday I popped the hood to do a routine check after a drive and noticed that the reservoir was completely empty. :confused0068:

The dealership towed the car in this morning and did a fill and pressure test and said they can't find a leak. No coolant in the oil, either. They are going to drive it a bit to see if that makes a difference. Otherwise, they don't know why.

I asked if they had any suggestions as to what may have happened to the fluid and he said no clue and nothing they could do about it.

Anyone here have any similar problems or suggestions? I hate to just take it back and drive it until it happens again. It didn't just magically disappear.

http://i.imgur.com/VETea8t.jpg

Is it just the reservoir or the whole thing completely dry?

i could only see the reservoir. The fill for the radiator looked empy as well, but you really can't see down into it.

My reservoir was bone dry with stock hoses. I switched to a Mishimoto radiator and Mishimoto hoses with T-Bar clamps and the amount of coolant that goes away is very very little. Seems to be sealed a lot better than the factory seal was.

This issue appears to be hit or miss for people. Some are bone dry in the reservoir, others still have coolant in theirs.

Water evaporates, no big deal. imo toss some distilled water in the reservoir and check up on it every couple of weeks, very minor inconvenience.

My reservoir was completely empty after the summer, I'm assuming with the heat and track time that some evaporated. Filled with Subaru Blue. Mine has been empty a couple of times since I've purchased.

Water? Yours are filled with water?????
Want to cool my car not make drinks!
Oh yaaaaa Texas...nevermind.

If the car didn't over heat then not likely a big deal. Ya the reservoir get empty sometimes that doesn't mean the whole system was empty.

don't mix with distilled water, use only subaru or toyota blue coolant otherwise you need to replace the coolant much sooner. mine was bone during the summer, i bought a jug from amazon. winter i don't see much change in the level but summer it certainly goes down. seems to be normal and just something i keep an eye on now.

I always, stock and modified smelled coolant coming from this motor whenever fans were on. I lost very little coolant but it seems some cars depending on area evaporate a lot more coolant/water than others. The engine bay is very sealed and does not manage heat well. When warmer car is always running 202-215F and back down namely when not in open air. Fan cycles on at 212F, and sometimes heat spikes far above that before fans kick in to cycle down temps. Around 218F you will get some water evaporation, pretty normal.

Sounds like I will just start keeping more of an eye on it. It was just surprising to me since I had it serviced 3 months ago and put less than 1.5k miles on it since then. The dealership pressure tested it before and after a drive and found no leaks, so I had to eat the tow and a gallon of coolant at $48.25 a gallon. dammit.

I think these cars also were not properly burped from the factory, I noticed mine was bone dry in the first few thousand miles. After refilling once or twice, my coolant level has remained pretty even since. Here is a thread about our coolant disappearing, I havent really gone through it though since once my coolant has leveled off I never bothered to go back and read more.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36150

Also when you brought your car in for an oil change, dont be surprised if they didnt notice your coolant reservoir was empty or top it off. Lube techs are generally not properly trained (this is by a person by person basis since some actually do take their job seriously like anywhere else), so they do not do many of the checks. They just do the oil change and get it out.

Like what a few others have stated I would get some coolant from Subaru. The funny thing is, I don't run any Toyota lubricants (or Subaru) unless it is coolant. You can't go wrong with going to the source of who actually built the engine. Toyota did the fuel management system so that doesn't say much on the rest of the engine lol.




Edit: I currently run a FBM radiator to increase the amount of coolant I have. My reservoir is usually low to empty until I drive the car and the engine gets hot. After cooling the radiator/engine pulls my coolant back into the radiator. Just watch your temps :) Hope this helps.

I've owned my completely stock BRZ for a year now with almost 9000 miles, and a couple months ago I noticed that my coolant in the reservoir was below the low line (but not bone dry). It doesn't seem to be leaking. My dad says its normal to lose some coolant over the winter. I just filled it back up with some compatible supertech brand coolant that I had on hand.

You sir, just cut your coolant life.

Your point is debatable. You sir, may have just opened a can of worms.

According to the manual I am correct. It specifically states mixing coolants reduces the life.

Factory fill is good for 11 years or 132k Miles. Mixing your coolant reduces the life to I think 30K miles or 50k Miles, but I know it's reduced significantly.

I have had to top up my coolant level twice in 3 seasons. There doesn't appear to be any leaks and this seems to be par for the course with this car.

Agreed that one should use Toyota or Subaru super coolant vs. mixing or adding distilled water to maintain the extreme longevity of the product. One jug should last several years.

In general people really ought to consult the owner's manual when they observe a potential issue with their vehicle.

I DID consult the owner's manual. Nothing says "hey, you might lose a gallon of coolant in less than 2 months of regular use. Keep a gallon on hand to regularly top it off."

Interesting thread. There are only two possibilities in a closed system, a leak or coolant escaping through the combustion chamber. Judging by what the experienced engine builders are saying about the FA I don't think its the latter. By leak I don't necessarily mean a drip that can be seen. With older coolants there was typically some white chalky residue visible around the leak. With modern coolants it's harder to detect. I'd start with the cap and move on to the hoses if it continues. Its not normal no matter what anyone's says. In the old days the system would sometimes vent, often overboard. But these are modern closed systems, closed being the key word.

I couldn't find the part in the owner's manual that says mixing coolants reduces life, but I do believe you that mixing certain coolants will decrease coolant performance/life, and can even solidify and clog up the system when mixing the wrong chemicals. However, the coolant I mixed with the factory coolant is ethylene-glycol based and silicon free, so hopefully nothing catastrophic will happen.

I'll flush the coolant earlier than normal to be on the safe side. Next time I'll wait until I can get my hands on the OEM coolant before adding any.

I noticed the same on my FR-S, although it is just above the low line. Purchased at the end of May 2014, and have 6k on it. Had and oil change check up in December.

There is a pretty long thread on this already. Multiple people have it with no real known cause. Looking for any hint of leaks (ie residue) has not found anything yet along with compression test, leakdown test, etc. Just keep an eye on it and top it off when needed.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...hlight=coolant

Another thing you guys can look for is, "WHEN" did you check your coolant level?
Was your car warmed up enough? Or did you just check the reservoir all of a sudden after the car has been sitting still for a while?

You will be able to see the coolant level rising after a car is warmed up a bit... surprise! lol (would like to put meme here but I won't...)

With that being said, I did however put a little more coolant (subaru blue) that I got from a Subaru dealership. No problems since then.

Thanks!
 

I just wanted to thank the OP for posting this.

I read it then decided to go home and check my reservoir tank.... it was bone dry as well. I waited till the engine cooled and checked the radiator which thankfully had coolant it. Not sure why the overspill tank would boil off like that I've never had a car that did that before but I know now to check that often as well....

Car only had about 6k on it at the time. Thanks again! :cheers:

Here's an interesting write up.

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...nt-amp-Testing

That's a great experiment you found. Apparently Supertech coolant is manufactured by Peak. Now I want to go flush my coolant right away! Should I have the dealer flush my system, or should I try DIY following Grimmspeed's guide?

Also, I found a thread here about someone who also mixed their coolant with peak 50/50 (like I did :bonk:). The answers there varied from "flush the coolant system" to "don't worry too much about it".

There are other threads on this. Ranging from bad hoses, hole in the overflow tank, etc.

Mine also had the same issue during the first few oil changes the coolant level always dropping. No smoke, no overheat, no spill on the floor, the hoses are clean. Checked the oil cap and no sign of mixing with oil.

I just topped it with distilled water. Now no more, mind you I live in desert climate so if it hasn't dropped in 4 months then I guess it should be ok. Probably they didn't bleed the radiator properly in the factory.

If that's really true.... I gotta flush my coolant.. lmao