Small mystery here, I am losing about 1.5 litres of coolant every 5-6 days and must top up to avoid low coolant light. The car, a 94850 Turbo 145 kms, is not overheating and no coolant stains are visible in the parking area or visible leaks except after hot running and shutdown when a small surge occurs presumeably from the expansion overflow line. Thermostat was replaced in March and all appeared well until three weeks ago. Have run out of places to look and wonder if I'm missing anything obvious. Thanks for any feedback.

 

Do you see white smoke (not steam) coming out of your exhaust while the car is running? That's a symptom you're burning coolant.

 

No indication of any smoke or steam visible from engine bay or exhaust.

 

I was about to say "bad water pump or head gasket", but I guess Rev covered that with his questions.

 

This is a bit of a longshot, but.... Check to see if the cap on the overflow tank is making a good seal. You might be losing coolant (as steam when the engine is hot) out of a leaky cap. Of course 1.5 liters a week is a lot of steam, and you would probably show signs of overheating if the coolant cap was leaking.

Another thing to check is the heater core. Do you smell coolant when the car is hot, or is the passenger side front carpets damp/wet?

Good luck,

Glenn

 

Thanks for input folks, appears to be a seam leak on the rad which is losing fluid under pressure. Will be topping up for a while as I won't be buying a new rad for some time.

 

I had the seam leak as well. It's very common. You can get away with nursing it for a while, but over time it will open up worse and you'll be forced to replace the radiator. The good news is that the radiators are relatively inexpensive and quite easy to replace. I think I did mine in a couple hours, including the thermostat, hoses, and bleeding the system. - AB

 

2001 V70 - same issue. Wasn't losing nearly as much coolant but could barely see the white smoke out the back. Turned out to be the head gasket. Warranty covered it.