Serious Coolant Issue

[mainpath]

Hey all,

Yet again another problem.....

I mentioned in a previous post that I just got my radiator replaced because it was spitting out fluid, Now after getting it replaced with a brand new one, another set of problems...

- Car turns on you'll drive it and stop as in turn the motor off, front right of the car (near over flow tank) coolant is pouring out, from somewhere underneath.
maybe 200-300ml then stops.
- You drive the car again stop and nothing.
- You leave engine running under load (air con on) and give it a few revs and nothing comes out.

it's a 50/50 chance some coolant will come out as it doesn't always happen.

I've looked extensively under the car and cannot figure out where it's coming from, i've looked at the pipes and they seem all fine, however the stupid stick says I have no coolant but if i open the radiator cap I have coolant in there.
So my worry is that it's going to over heat and i'll damage the engine, because i don't accurately know how much coolant I have, I also don't know if the reason why it was pouring out coolant is because it's been over filled by the mechanic that installed it?

I am officially confused.

[S.T.K.E]

Mine likes to take a little dump of coolant once in a while, especially when it has been given heaps.

[mainpath]

hummm so it might be normal ? what about your fluid level ? what's it at?

I don't give it heaps, then again I tried to give it heaps last night after it's first leak and nothing came out.

[paul-r]

Have you checked the overflow container for leaks ?
Fill it up with water and observe what happens after an hour or so. No need to run the car for this.
With a small plastic tube you can siphon the water out and replace with coolant to the correct level.
I would also be checking your radiator cap.

[mainpath]

Ummm, I did add a fair bit of water in to the over flow container but probably not enough to test it the way you mean.
Good idea.
It's not leaking from anywhere near the radiator cap from what I can tell.

But I will try that test tonight, I have the car booked in for tomorrow morning.

[graham7773]

It is not possible to over fill the cooling system but the reservoir can be over filled. No problem though as soon as the engine reaches operating temperature and pushes more coolant into the reservoir, the excess will overflow so next time the engine is run you will find the reservoir coolant level has returned to normal unless something else is wrong

[mainpath]

well if i take out the coolant meter stick it's at the first circle, but if i open radiator cap I can see coolant inside the radiator.

[Jacko84]

Heater tap?

[mainpath]

If the heater tap were faulty would that mean that my front window would fog up even if the air con is off?

[Dayvo]

The heater tap under the bonnet on the drivers side becomes brittle with age and cracks and allows coolant to seep out . Have a look on the chassis rail where the heater tap is and see if it has been leaking

[mainpath]

Okay so mechanic has gotten back to me.
Says he can't find anything, He said that thermostat is okay & he will re-bleed the system, he will replace radiator cap, once replaced he called me to tell me
that my secondary fan is not kicking in, so i told him it will only kick in at a certain temp. To which he didn't really know what to say.
His taken the car to an auto electrician, he says thats why it's over heating. But it's not f'ing overheating it's pushing out coolant so what would the fan have to do with it?

also with the radiator replacement he did last week, do the fans come with it as well?

[Bushy]

no the fans ar not with the radiator as they just remove them of the old one and put it on the new one... and i found that my drivers side fan does not seem to come on at all... only the passenger side.. but i got my other half to turn on the a/c for 1 fan to turn on and as soon as i tell her to turn the A/C off the other one just starts to spin but stops ( as well as the one that was spinning stops also ).. i don't know if this is normal but i noticed this the other day after i flushed out my water... also i noticed that on the top of the over flow bottle is a hose that goes over the side of it to loose the water if it gets to full...



but relay if you check the radiator level each day and u can see the water/coolant.. then its fine u know its not leaking... as for it stooping while Ur driving ( i think that's what u was saying) im not shore about that .. may be a computer/CAS or somthng like that

[mainpath]

Well the car didn't stop as I was driving, Heat Light came on and I stopped and it pushed the coolant out.

So I got a second call back from the mechanic it turns out
- Radiator Cap needed replacing.
- Thermostat is okay.

However the mechanic took it to his auto electrician who found out that the writing going to the fuse box was shorting out, preventing the fans from turning on at times.
and he believes that because of this short, the fans were only turning on (at the needed temp) sometimes, so this explains why only at times the car would heat up
dump a shit load of coolant in the over flow and because the over flow was too full, coolant leaked out and then stopped coming out after x amount, regardless of how long the car has been on.
So his theory makes some sense in my mind and it was only $185 start to finish.
I see what happens when I pick it up in an hour and i'll post back.