Hi, I am new to Volvos and really owning a car at all. I just bought a 2001 Volvo V70 with 119 thousand miles. I noticed within a week of buying the car that the coolant levels were going down quickly but I didn't see any signs of a leak. A few days ago the coolant level warning came on so I pulled over and opened the hood. The coolant was at the low level marking on the tank. I let the car sit for thirty minutes and checked again and the coolant level was back up. I drove the car home and had no obvious issues. Then this morning I checked the oil on the dip stick and it was sort of bubbly and runny looking. I freaked out thinking it was the head gasket and went to smoke a cigarette and calm down. When I came back and checked the dip stick again it looked normal. I checked of other signs of a bad head gasket... foam on the oil cap, white smoke coming from the exhaust, oil in the coolant.... from what I could tell that all looked good. I have been told to do a compression test and am going to as soon as I can but Im wondering of anybody who has more knowledge around this than I do has any insight into what could be going on?

 

The coolant has to go somewhere... look for signs of a leak on radiator hoses, the sides of the radiator etc. Any odd smells when you drive the car or inside the cabin (particularly if the heat is on when the car first starts up (possible heater core leak) or from the tailpipe (cracked head or head gasket issue)... You can buy an HC coolant test kit (measures exhaust gas that pushes into the coolant). goo on the dipstick could be condensation (particularly if you don't drive it far enough to fully warm up)