My grand adventure to Alaska has been scrubbed for this year. My plan to take a used TV with only 8 months shake-down time on it was too bold I guess.While driving through Montana, I hit 95-100 degree weather for two days, and it revealed some sort of fault in the cooling system. I pressed on, driving slower, taking breaks during the hottest parts of the day, etc, to Lake Louise. The cool mountain conditions helped a lot. I headed back to Calgary and had an auto shop check everything, they could find no fault except low fluid. I asked if there was no fault, where did the fluid go, they had no answers. I spent the next day driving around town in 85+ degree temps with no problems. The day after, I head back toward the Rockies and despite cold mountain air, the cooling system is acting up again. I pull over to a wayside, and the fluid is low again! With a heavy sigh, I refill, and turn around and head east.Trying to make the best of my return trip was unsuccessfully too. I come back to my home state Michigan to find the temps in the upper 90s, the few days I tried to spend camping in the U.P. were spent mostly hiding in the air conditioning of my trailer, suffering from heat induced migraines.Oh well, maybe next time.

That is sad!You may post what kind of rig and maybe someone here can help identify the problem.

Does your exhaust have a white hue and smell sweet? Also, check your transmission fluid to see if looks like a strawberry milkshake.

OLD mechanic trick. Remove your engines dipstick, with the engine hot, place a few drops of engine oil on your exhaust headers. If the oil sizzles, you have water in your crankcase, if it just smokes, no water. Also you could just have a faulty radiator cap, allowing coolant to escape when the engine gets hot.

Or a hose with a pinhole leak. I had one like that one time and it would only leak after the system got nice and hot and pressurized. Drove me nuts until one time I opened the hood with the engine hot and running and saw the slight bit of steam escaping. Try tightening down every single hose clamp. With luck, you might find one that is loose.

Had a similar situation with my BMW. I would need to add coolant every few days or so yet no indication of where the coolant was going. As previous poster mentions, check your exhaust for white hue and coolant smell preferably when you first start the car at the beginning of the day. What happened for me was that I had a small hairline crack in the cylinder head between the piston and the exhaust port. When I shut the car off, the hot coolant would leak into the cylinder and then blow out the exhaust the next time I started the car. It is very noticable when the car is cold. It almost looks like you are burning oil but goes away as the car warms up. I hope this is not the case for you though as it was a very costly repair.Good luck.

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18 Replies

TucsonJim
Explorer II
Aug 28, 2013
GordonThree wrote:
From what I can tell, air is getting into the cooling loop somehow, and forcing water out of the radiator by over flowing the overflow tank. When I'd stop to top off the coolant, there'd always be a out-rush of air when I open the rad cap (after cooling down for at least an hour.) There is nothing unusual in the exhaust, it is clear and mostly odor free, all the fluids look the way they are supposed to.

This upcoming spring, I'll be returning a car I lease for business, and will likely buy an over compensating pickup truck.

Very likely, you have a bad radiator cap and a simple fix. When the system is pressurized, the cap does not have enough spring pressure to keep the seal. Coolant bypasses the cap and flows into the overflow tank and beyond. As air enters the system, it still retains some pressure when the system is off. That's why you hear the whoosh. I'd certainly try a new radiator cap before throwing in the towel.
SideHillSoup
Explorer
Aug 28, 2013
mpfireman wrote:
OLD mechanic trick. Remove your engines dipstick, with the engine hot, place a few drops of engine oil on your exhaust headers. If the oil sizzles, you have water in your crankcase, if it just smokes, no water.
Also you could just have a faulty radiator cap, allowing coolant to escape when the engine gets hot.

Ditto on those points
GordonThree
Explorer
Aug 28, 2013
From what I can tell, air is getting into the cooling loop somehow, and forcing water out of the radiator by over flowing the overflow tank. When I'd stop to top off the coolant, there'd always be a out-rush of air when I open the rad cap (after cooling down for at least an hour.) There is nothing unusual in the exhaust, it is clear and mostly odor free, all the fluids look the way they are supposed to.

This upcoming spring, I'll be returning a car I lease for business, and will likely buy an over compensating pickup truck.
FrankoToo
Explorer II
Aug 28, 2013
Had a similar situation with my BMW. I would need to add coolant every few days or so yet no indication of where the coolant was going. As previous poster mentions, check your exhaust for white hue and coolant smell preferably when you first start the car at the beginning of the day. What happened for me was that I had a small hairline crack in the cylinder head between the piston and the exhaust port. When I shut the car off, the hot coolant would leak into the cylinder and then blow out the exhaust the next time I started the car. It is very noticable when the car is cold. It almost looks like you are burning oil but goes away as the car warms up. I hope this is not the case for you though as it was a very costly repair.

Good luck.
GoPackGo
Explorer
Aug 28, 2013
Or a hose with a pinhole leak. I had one like that one time and it would only leak after the system got nice and hot and pressurized. Drove me nuts until one time I opened the hood with the engine hot and running and saw the slight bit of steam escaping.

Try tightening down every single hose clamp. With luck, you might find one that is loose.
mpfireman
Explorer
Aug 28, 2013
OLD mechanic trick. Remove your engines dipstick, with the engine hot, place a few drops of engine oil on your exhaust headers. If the oil sizzles, you have water in your crankcase, if it just smokes, no water.
Also you could just have a faulty radiator cap, allowing coolant to escape when the engine gets hot.
sgip2000
Explorer
Aug 28, 2013
Does your exhaust have a white hue and smell sweet? Also, check your transmission fluid to see if looks like a strawberry milkshake.
enblethen
Nomad
Aug 28, 2013
That is sad!
You may post what kind of rig and maybe someone here can help identify the problem.

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