Coolant low in radiator but high in reservoir

[cams75]

Hi,

bought a 2000 VX Berlina a few weeks back and have had to top up the radiator. Checking the radiator the level is much higher then the 2nd arrow but the level in radiator is consistently low (can barely see it). Any ideas?

No obvious leaks that I can see so far. Oil ok and exhaust doesnt smell sweet.

Cheers

Cams

[soop]

Are you checking it when its hot?

[cams75]

been checking when cold and hot

[graham7773]

Best case, radiator cap? Or time for a pressure test looking for leaks. Sounds like your water is not recycling back through the cap, I hope so as the news only gets worse if it is anything else like hoses, inlet manifold gasket, blown head gasket, cracked head, cracked block but these become obvious when you find caffe latte on your dipstick instead of oil.

[cams75]

oil seems all good so far. Dipstick fine, under cap fine as well.. any ideas what a pressure test is worth?

[11gothevt11]

oil seems all good so far. Dipstick fine, under cap fine as well.. any ideas what a pressure test is worth?

I am having exzact same problem
Water low in radiator but overflow is at full mark
I have changed radiator cap the hose that goes into overflow
I have had presure test found tiny leak in a couple hose's put new hose's on but still same thing happening

Does anyone know the answer to this problem?????????????????

[Dayvo]

I had same problem too , Replaced the overflow hose as it was blocked . Had trouble getting it out of the bottle as it had swollen to twice is size and was blocked with crap

[11gothevt11]

I had same problem too , Replaced the overflow hose as it was blocked . Had trouble getting it out of the bottle as it had swollen to twice is size and was blocked with crap

Did it fix the porblem??

[lout]

Radiator cap

[11gothevt11]

Radiator cap

yeh i tried 2 differant new ones

[delcowizzid]

make sure the overflow hose goes into the water in the overflow tank or it will suck air back into the radiator instead of water

[Dayvo]

Yep , seems to be ok now . If your gonna change yours , pull the rubber grommet out after removing the hose , then feed the hose through the grommet using dish washing liquid to make it easier then push the grommet back into the bottle .Also pays to remove the bottle and give it a good cleanout

[wortus]

I just had this problem, the radiator level when cold was just visable in the bottom of the bit the cap goes onto. I filled it a couple of times, re-bled it and the level dropped back to the same point and the level in the overflow was going up. I bought a new radiator cap and the problem is fixed. I noticed on a friends VT that the overflow hose was pretty swollen up in the resevoir, mine is still fine.

How clean is your cooling system and how long since it has been flushed? I am asking incase there is crud blocking up the tube or cap as my mates is pretty crudded up as he doesn't service it properly.

What you need to do is check the overflow when the motor is hot and cold and see if the level is changing, ie it goes up when hot and back down when cold. If it's going up then down then there is probably a leak somewhere, if the level goes up when hot and does not go back down then there is something wrong with the cap or overflow hose to the bottle.
Don't take the cap off when the motor is hot as the coolant is expanded and will if hot enough boil once the pressure is removed as increasing pressure increases the boiling point.

[11gothevt11]

I just had this problem, the radiator level when cold was just visable in the bottom of the bit the cap goes onto. I filled it a couple of times, re-bled it and the level dropped back to the same point and the level in the overflow was going up. I bought a new radiator cap and the problem is fixed. I noticed on a friends VT that the overflow hose was pretty swollen up in the resevoir, mine is still fine.

How clean is your cooling system and how long since it has been flushed? I am asking incase there is crud blocking up the tube or cap as my mates is pretty crudded up as he doesn't service it properly.

What you need to do is check the overflow when the motor is hot and cold and see if the level is changing, ie it goes up when hot and back down when cold. If it's going up then down then there is probably a leak somewhere, if the level goes up when hot and does not go back down then there is something wrong with the cap or overflow hose to the bottle.
Don't take the cap off when the motor is hot as the coolant is expanded and will if hot enough boil once the pressure is removed as increasing pressure increases the boiling point.

Thanks for the advise
Well i've have the car for 18 months its been flushed around 7 times trying to fix this problem
Last time i done it was 1 month ago
I have new radiator overflow pipe....new radiator cap...new termosat...been presure tested..its holding presure now...but still same problem.....so i'm thinking there is a slight tiny tiny leak only when hot in the plastic..Thats why the presure test doesn't pickit up....
So ???????

[sedgewik]

should of done pressure test first if nothing shows on test then it is a leak in the engine some engine leaks may not show straight away
ive seen coolent leaking down the outside of the engine nothing inside

[cams75]

well new radiator cap and level in the radiator is at the top also some sludgy crap out of reservoir half hanging out of hose.. on the other hand followed the misses this morning and seemed to be excess steam (yeah it was raining and Im paranoid) but cleared up after 2k's then car cooled down for 90 mins in the torrential rain and same again.. Am thinking either im paranoid (no temp issues at all) or maybe inlet manifold gasket.. if the gasket anyone had one done recently by a mechanic and what it cost them?

[Dayvo]

well new radiator cap and level in the radiator is at the top also some sludgy crap out of reservoir half hanging out of hose.. on the other hand followed the misses this morning and seemed to be excess steam (yeah it was raining and Im paranoid) but cleared up after 2k's then car cooled down for 90 mins in the torrential rain and same again.. Am thinking either im paranoid (no temp issues at all) or maybe inlet manifold gasket.. if the gasket anyone had one done recently by a mechanic and what it cost them?

I done my intake manifold gasket the other week took me about seven hours , 4 of those were removing the old gasket and cement It must have had a bodge job before i bought it and they have used a whole large tube of gasket cement all over the gaskets, manifolds and heads . Cost me about $120 in parts . Give it a compression test to see if it is the head gasket .

[dfb50]

I couldnt stop this in mine till i changed the inlet manifold gaskets, i had oil in the water by this stage approx 220,000km. Changing the gaskets solved the problem, the cooling system must depressurise through the leaking gasket, therfore no vacuum in the system to suck the water out of the reservoir when it cools down. I was getting sick of topping up the radiator only to have the shit end up in the overflow bottle. '
Hope this helps, Dave.

[pablo]

I also have the same problem, coolant not returning back to engine from over flow tank when it cools down. ALSO, I keep getting engine oil traces in over flow tank.(coming from radiator overflow) I have flushed out complete system and changed radiator cap, but the problem persists. It's been doing this for several years. I have been thinking head gasket is leeking the oil from the rocker feed into the coolant, but reading dfb50's post boosts my hope that it is only the valley cover gasket.

Pablo

[Dayvo]

I couldnt stop this in mine till i changed the inlet manifold gaskets, i had oil in the water by this stage approx 220,000km. Changing the gaskets solved the problem, the cooling system must depressurise through the leaking gasket, therfore no vacuum in the system to suck the water out of the reservoir when it cools down. I was getting sick of topping up the radiator only to have the shit end up in the overflow bottle. '
Hope this helps, Dave.

lol 220,000km this must be the magic number , Thats about how many Kays mine has done and i had to change the gasket

[BPX-31H]

With the radiator levels did the car level temp on the cluster rise?

[pablo]

Mine never alters on the temp gauge! ...Though, I don't let it drop too low.

[cams75]

temp hasnt changed a bit. even was monitoring it on digital the other day and was sitting at 83c ... guess its off for a pressure test for piece of mind.

[JonesyVT]

Hello,
I sometimes use a product called SEALTAB from my parts man, it is a powder that goes into the radiator and seals any small leaks that may be there, have used in on a 4 cyl motor with a leaking radiator and it fixed it within a week. Temporary I know but it helps buy some time and confirm the source of the leak.
Worth a try.
Jonesy VT

[vxcalais_01]

lol 220,000km this must be the magic number , Thats about how many Kays mine has done and i had to change the gasket

I did my ecotec intake gasket and my brothers super 6 at around 150,000k's. Its when radiator, water pump all start going.

Key to water radiator level is the overflow must only be 1/2 full. When too full it makes a vacuum and pulls water from the system. I reckon the older overflow system was better with the see through bottle. New system you cannot tell.