Problem started two weeks ago. Car started to overheat, I pulled over and had a friend run some coolant out to me. I only had to add in a little to get it over the MIN line but below the MAX line.
Yesterday the CEL came on and when I was halfway home the temp gauge was going back and forth. I pulled over and put more coolant in, about half a gallon of the Prestone 50/50 mix. It barely had any in the reservoir but the temp gauge stayed at the halfway mark for the rest of the way home.
I have been looking for any obvious leaks and have not noticed a lot dripping down. The only time I did was when I had slopped some of the coolant over the side while filling the reservoir. Ditto on the smell of burning antifreeze.
The car is a 2005 Suzuki Reno S with 54,500 miles on her. I have parked the car and have not moved her anywhere so I do not have any scans run to get a code. The air filter looks okay and the spark plugs, wires, etc are all the stock items that came with the car. I do not have any mods done on the car. Recently I had the oil changed and also the back brakes. There was one night where some debris popped up under my car and that could have damaged something under there.
Any ideas at this point? I am going to start calling around tomorrow to find someone to take this to and check it out.
Thanks in advance.
Coolant system problem, ideas please
Moderators: daewoomofo, Moderators Group
Coolant system problem, ideas please
Light without shadow is blindness.
if you are loosing coolant then it is leaking somewhere... either outside or inside your engine.
inside leak is easy to detect but hard and expensive to fix, check for water in the oil by removing the oil cap and see on the bottom if their are any mayonais (spelling) resedues on its backside... this is how it looks when water and engine oil mix:
check to see if the tail pipe is spitting water vapour or dropswater, having that on a cold morning is normal though but if it is leaking then it will be associated with loss of power and sometimes hard starts.
if it is an external leak then you should turn the engine till it reaches normal operating temp. then drive the car hard arround the block to heat the engine then turn off the engine at your drive way, this should make the coolant receive more and more heat and increase the pressure inside the cooling system and the leak will be more evedent.
check the coolant hoses for cracks and deteroration ans well as the condition of the clamps holding them.
check the tanks on both sides of the radiator for cracks, leaks will show up as greenish salty preseptates arround the cracked area.
check the water pump for leaks as well (at 68k miles this a possibility indeed).
check the coolant reservoir and its cap
check the coolant lines from/to the heater core.
i used a product from GUNK, it is called Radiator seal and it works fine... try to use it or use a similar product to solve this issue.
http://www.autobarn.net/chc3-12.html
MMamdouh
inside leak is easy to detect but hard and expensive to fix, check for water in the oil by removing the oil cap and see on the bottom if their are any mayonais (spelling) resedues on its backside... this is how it looks when water and engine oil mix:
check to see if the tail pipe is spitting water vapour or dropswater, having that on a cold morning is normal though but if it is leaking then it will be associated with loss of power and sometimes hard starts.
if it is an external leak then you should turn the engine till it reaches normal operating temp. then drive the car hard arround the block to heat the engine then turn off the engine at your drive way, this should make the coolant receive more and more heat and increase the pressure inside the cooling system and the leak will be more evedent.
check the coolant hoses for cracks and deteroration ans well as the condition of the clamps holding them.
check the tanks on both sides of the radiator for cracks, leaks will show up as greenish salty preseptates arround the cracked area.
check the water pump for leaks as well (at 68k miles this a possibility indeed).
check the coolant reservoir and its cap
check the coolant lines from/to the heater core.
i used a product from GUNK, it is called Radiator seal and it works fine... try to use it or use a similar product to solve this issue.
http://www.autobarn.net/chc3-12.html
MMamdouh
Driving is the utmost fun you can have with your pants on!
Check out my ride: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/567267
Check out my ride: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/567267
Thanks! I am not at home at the moment but should get back there sometime this week. On Monday I will post what I found and what I tried. The radiator sealant did that good of a job? I had been told before that the stuff does not work too well. But I am willing to try for a cheap fix.
Light without shadow is blindness.
well... it depends on how big of a crack you have... if it is too big then it won't work but if it is small (and usualy hard to see) it will seal it.
MMamdouh
MMamdouh
Driving is the utmost fun you can have with your pants on!
Check out my ride: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/567267
Check out my ride: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/567267
OK, I finally made it home Thursday night and then spent most of Friday sleeping. 
Saturday I popped off the oil cap and took a look. Hey, just oil! Good news there. The way the universe seems to work had me expecting to see that sludge that you described. So I went and picked up some antifreeze and ended up with the Prestone Radiator stop leak product. It was all of $5 USD for the stop leak.
Took everything home and waited a bit for the system to cool down. I took the time to try and find the leak. No luck. So I stuck some cardboard underneath and finally found where it was dripping down from. I still have not found the origin but it is from a place where it ends up wrapping around the oil pan and then dripping down to the ground. At this point it was dripping rather quickly. After putting in the stop leak and topping off the fluid I did as the instruction said and ran the car for 10 minutes with the heater on (car was in neutral). Still leaking. Turned off the car after about 15 minutes and went inside. About 20 minutes later I jumped in the car and drove up and down the street for about 15 minutes. Got out and saw a single drop ready to fall. Once that was gone another did not form and so I put cardboard under the car again. Checked it 30 minutes later and it was still dry. Ran to pick up my air filter (took 7 places before I found that and a bulb for the headlight) and got back. Still no dripping.
Yesterday I had a long drive down to meet some people and a longer one coming back. I did smell some of the coolant burning off on the engine but I still have not noticed any drips coming down from the same place. I checked the fluid level today and it is pretty close to where it was the day before. So for right now it appears to be fine.
Thank you for the tips on what to look for and what to use.
Saturday I popped off the oil cap and took a look. Hey, just oil! Good news there. The way the universe seems to work had me expecting to see that sludge that you described. So I went and picked up some antifreeze and ended up with the Prestone Radiator stop leak product. It was all of $5 USD for the stop leak.
Took everything home and waited a bit for the system to cool down. I took the time to try and find the leak. No luck. So I stuck some cardboard underneath and finally found where it was dripping down from. I still have not found the origin but it is from a place where it ends up wrapping around the oil pan and then dripping down to the ground. At this point it was dripping rather quickly. After putting in the stop leak and topping off the fluid I did as the instruction said and ran the car for 10 minutes with the heater on (car was in neutral). Still leaking. Turned off the car after about 15 minutes and went inside. About 20 minutes later I jumped in the car and drove up and down the street for about 15 minutes. Got out and saw a single drop ready to fall. Once that was gone another did not form and so I put cardboard under the car again. Checked it 30 minutes later and it was still dry. Ran to pick up my air filter (took 7 places before I found that and a bulb for the headlight) and got back. Still no dripping.
Yesterday I had a long drive down to meet some people and a longer one coming back. I did smell some of the coolant burning off on the engine but I still have not noticed any drips coming down from the same place. I checked the fluid level today and it is pretty close to where it was the day before. So for right now it appears to be fine.
Thank you for the tips on what to look for and what to use.
Light without shadow is blindness.