Coolant level dropping & Dirty coolant

[guybo]

10 month old car? It could be that you've just bled the air out of the system over time. My car used about a quart of coolant when I first got it but never used another drop after. In the hot environment where you live (is it Phillipines?) you can use distilled water to top it off. The coolant is very expensive.

[Tcoat]

Cars lose coolant. Some lose it faster than others depending on the driving style and conditions.


It is not mysterious nor abnormal and does not mean the car is broken in any way.


If you have a bad gasket, cap or hose you will know it but not because your coolant dropped by 4 ounces over a course of months.

[ermax]

Originally Posted by guybo

10 month old car? It could be that you've just bled the air out of the system over time. My car used about a quart of coolant when I first got it but never used another drop after. In the hot environment where you live (is it Phillipines?) you can use distilled water to top it off. The coolant is very expensive.

I just put this in my car:
https://www.valvoline.com/our-produc...freeze-coolant

It's sold in red and blue but they are identical. I went with blue because it looks so cool. Hehe.

According to MSDS sheets it's made by the same company that makes Subaru Super Coolant but at half the cost and easier to acquire.

[Overdrive]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Cars lose coolant. Some lose it faster than others depending on the driving style and conditions.


It is not mysterious nor abnormal and does not mean the car is broken in any way.


If you have a bad gasket, cap or hose you will know it but not because your coolant dropped by 4 ounces over a course of months.

I admit that this took me some time to accept because my previous vehicles held onto their coolant quite well, and my level dropping in this car within months of having it on the road concerned me. It's also a bit misleading because that space in the expansion tank from the Low mark to the Full mark really is only a few ounces of volume. But you and the other usual suspects on here pretty much put my mind at ease/beat me into submission, so now I've just got a bottle of premixed coolant (compliments of the local Subaru dealer) on hand so I can top it up as needed, and I keep an eye on it.

[highway7]

Originally Posted by Overdrive

I admit that this took me some time to accept because my previous vehicles held onto their coolant quite well, and my level dropping in this car within months of having it on the road concerned me. It's also a bit misleading because that space in the expansion tank from the Low mark to the Full mark really is only a few ounces of volume. But you and the other usual suspects on here pretty much put my mind at ease/beat me into submission, so now I've just got a bottle of premixed coolant (compliments of the local Subaru dealer) on hand so I can top it up as needed, and I keep an eye on it.

I just drove over 3300km over the past week and my coolant level dropped from max line before my journey to the halfway point between max and min (Both checked in the morning). I was regularly cruising between 3-4k in 6th gear for hours at a time.



Meanwhile, my old civic that I put 40k km from 116k km to 156k km, I never had to top it off ever...



Same, I have a bottle of scion blue premixed (55/45 mix in Canada) that I just top off every 6 months or so... only cost me $15 for 3.7L jug.

[redwine]

Hi,

Understand both Toyota/Subaru manual call for blue color coolant,
Is it brilliant blue (eg. blue screen of death on PC)?

I didnt take note of the color during delivery.
The coolant my dealer is using is more like Turquoise color.
Sort of blue/green mix together (as below), definitely not the usual blue color.


Rgds

[redwine]

eg.

[highway7]

The coolant is a dark turquoise

[22R]

My 17 86 has a lil over 5K miles and I have watched this and other coolant threads but I have not lost any level yet. It does fluctuate up and down in the OF tank but the level is always the same when cold. Car is only street driven and not harshly. Just another observation

22R

[Overdrive]

Originally Posted by highway7

I just drove over 3300km over the past week and my coolant level dropped from max line before my journey to the halfway point between max and min (Both checked in the morning). I was regularly cruising between 3-4k in 6th gear for hours at a time.



Meanwhile, my old civic that I put 40k km from 116k km to 156k km, I never had to top it off ever...



Same, I have a bottle of scion blue premixed (55/45 mix in Canada) that I just top off every 6 months or so... only cost me $15 for 3.7L jug.

Hah, I did the same sort of thing as you. Funny thing is I lost coolant from normal driving over the past year (from over the Max to below the Min mark), but after my last time topping it off a few months back (actually past the max again...oops), and driving about 2500 miles for a road trip (about 1900 of it was long stints of highway cruising, the rest a mixed bag of all sorts of driving at my destination) the coolant level hasn't moved a bit, and I didn't burn a drop of oil, either. I expected what happened to you to happen to me. I know the automatics run the engine lower at the same speeds, but I was expecting to have lost some coolant over all of that driving (where only one day was low enough temp to be in the high 80s), and at least a little bit of oil. At 70mph in 6th the engine's only running around 2500rpms, so I could certainly do worse for straining the engine and its systems over a long period, but until they see fit to make the national speed limit 85mph......

Anyway, not complaining at all about not losing fluids, but it's funny to me that my normal commuting and local driving seems to take more of a toll on the system than a ton of highway running putting 2 months of miles on a car in a week.

[sly]

Originally Posted by redwine

Just to share....

Under the Owners Manual,
it state SUBARU Super Coolant is a mixture of 50% coolant and 50% deionized water.

Under the Service Manual recommended material,
For coolant dilution purpose, the recommendation is Distilled Water.

Deionized and distilled are the same thing, just treated differently. Di water is passed through a reverse osmosis membrane that removes particulates and then DI resin which removes dissolved compounds that are ionically bonded to the water (minerals).

Distilled is boiled and the steam is condensed back into a liquid. Minerals and contaminates do not evaporate, only pure water.

In either case, what you have is pure water with no minerals. It is the minerals that coat the cooling system and cause corrosion. DI and Distilled water are both free from minerals and are safe for your cooling system. Use either one. There is no effective difference.

[redwine]

Originally Posted by highway7

The coolant is a dark turquoise

Is it similar to post #35 ?

[highway7]

Originally Posted by redwine

Is it similar to post #35 ?

Yes I believe so

[Molez93]

I just spent a little over 3hrs of driving time at Watkins Glen this weekend, and I would consistently "loose" whatever coolant was in the resevoir tank. I added to the tank after the first few times I noticed it on day one. Decided to skip it today (2nd day).

Zero tell tale signs of coolant system issues otherwise: no smell, no visible leaks, no residue, nothing weird about the oil in either the catch-can or on the dip stick.

Will take a look at the oil itself from the pan in the next couple days, but I just HATE the idea of simply assuming this is normal.

Anything specific to my experience that would suggest I'm close to trouble?