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.