For some reason my baby loves to give me headaches when it comes to coolant... Coolant plugs bursting, retaining coolant in the resovoir etc. Now i am straight up just eating coolant. I have to refill my radiator about once a week. It was pointed out to me that my radiator hose that goes from the overflow into the radiator had more pressure than normal and that could mean i have bad coolant seals which would be understandable as i have about 125k on the motor and it has been overheated before. Is there something else that could be making me lose coolant? Could someone give me an explanation on what happens when your coolant seals go bad?

 

A cheap way of telling, besides a compression test, is the "volcano test".

Open the radiator cap (engine cold).

Fill it all the way up. Put cap on.

Open upper cap (By the thermostat)

Remove bleeder plug.

Fill with coolant until it begins to come out of the bleeder hole. Screw plug back in.

Top off coolant. Leave the cap off.

Pull the same fuses you would pull if you were de-flooding.

Crank the motor and watch and see if coolant shoots out of the opening.

It's a pretty dead giveaway. What happens is as the rotors spin, they force air into the coolant passages through the bad seals which pressurizes the system. The air (and displaced coolant) will escape through whatever opening it can, whether it be your reservoir or the filler neck (in this case). The only 100% way to tell is a compression test.

 

Cool i will do both then none are very difficult.. where does the coolant go while i'm driving then? Because i can't see any coolant after a drive and popping the hood...

 

Probably vaporizing on your exhaust manifold. Or blowing out of your overflow tank, through the rad, and sprayed all over your engine. Is there white/tan residue anywhere on the motor?

 

if the Coolant is staying In the jug,then check your Rad cap,or the pressurized cap on the thermo neck.Also the Part that Holds it on(that black plastic Eye looking piece that holds the small overflow hose on).If that piece is broken then Coolant will go out,but it won't go back in.,Check the jug Hoses,and the lid if the Jug, and make sure they are Not clogged or Broken.Try another OEM Thermostat too.

 

i'm having a similar problem
after i took my fc on a road trip something is going wrong
i replaced my thermostat, last night drained the overflow, and topped off my coolant
i can drive a good 10 miles then my overflow gets so full its spraying all over my engine bay

i thought it was probably my thermostat and i took it out, put it in boiling water and she wasnt opening up sooo.
i replaced it. ITS STILL just dumping coolant and telling me to add more