Ok my low coolant light came on yesterday. When I got home I filled it. Today I drove it about 5 miles and it started to get to the red on temp guage, low coolant light came on again and the car died. I couldn't start it until the temp went down. I drove it home (with the heat on which was not fun) and let the engine cool. The coolant is barely visible in the radiator. I don't see any leaks in the radiator or hoses. Where could the coolant be going? The oil doesn't seem to have antifreeze in it but?

 

Oh I just bought it a couple of weeks ago so I don't know if the issue just started because the oil was changed last week and they did not say anything about it looking like it had antifreeze in it

 

Did you check to see if the water pump was leaking? Also check your coolant overflow tank.

 

Don't see any leak from water pump...found a very small leak in a small hose but doesn't seem like that much...fixing that now hopefully

 

Alot of times when people sell cars the engine has blown head gasket(s).

Just a guess, but they could have jammed the coolant system full of stop leak and it held till now.

But.....short of that pain in the *** job to diagnos and to fix.....you may simply just need a new radiator cap. The tension on the spring lessens over time and lets coolant escape.

Get one and see if that fixes the problem. If the cap is bad, over a matter of a few days, coolant will slowly get pushed out of the over-flow line into the over-flow tank. At some point there will be so much air in the system, you will start to get hotter and hotter till you over heat totally.


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Already have the new radiator cap - just got it last week. The oil looks fine...Found a very small leak out of a small hose and hopefully fixed that. At the same time found a small power steering hose leaking and fixed that - I hope! After replacing the hoses and thermostat I let the car run in the driveway for about 20 minutes with the AC on high and the temp guage never went to the half way point. I then drove it a few miles in the city a few miles on the highway, back to the city, let it sit for about 20 minutes with AC on high again while I waited for my food, drove it home and never got past the 1/2 way point on the temp guage. I pulled in to my driveway and it spiked up, put it in park and idled for a bit and it dropped to between the half way point and red then I heard the fan kick on at about 240 degrees and then the temp started going back down. So, it did get a little hot after it was running for quite awhile so I am going to go back out and see what the coolant level is now that it has cooled off. Not sure why it took so long for the fans to kick in - I believe they are supposed to kick in at around 195 degrees!

Oh and the reason the woma nsold the car was because it died on her coming home and she had just spent a good chiuck of chain on it doing the plugs and distrinutor and didn't want to spend any more money on it. She had some friends take a look at it and they were all convinced it was the timing chain. I went and looked at it and when I turned the key all I got was a click. Swapped my sisters camaro battery in to it and it was trying to turn over but didn't have enough juice but you could tell from teh changing sounds it was not the timing chain. I replaced the battery and alternator and it fired right up!

 

If you got the porper 18psi cap and there's still coolant missing after you check you probably have blown head gasket(s). But that hose thats leaking needs to be fixed too. Which one was leaking?

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coolant level looks good...Not sure after why it was running so long and not getting hot it all of a sudden spiked and then the fans didn't turn on until too high? Odd but hopefully this fixed the problem!\\We did fix the hose and after it running for 30 minutes, driving for 10, sitting for 10 and driving for 5 the level didn't drop. We are thinking the leak - from a small hose toward the bottom - was primarily leaking when under pressure and that was why I couldn't really see it and didn't see any dripping on the ground. But, my friend got under it and could see where it was leaking down the hose. So, hopefully the problem is fixed.

 

cool.