lost coolant

[onyx pt]

Hello everyone, Well for some reason I keep on losing coolant. This past month I have had to add coolant to the resevoir tank like 5 times. I dont seem to be leaking it anywhere that I can see. It keeps going below the low mark indicator, and I have to fill it back up to the middle or past the middle of both the full and fill marks. Now before I take it to the stealer and have them look at it with a charge of 92 dollars can anyone here know what could be causing my problem? My car is an 03 gt auto with 41,000 miles. Thanks in advance.

[ote69]

This is just a thought and no need to panic yet. My ford ranger developed a small crack in between 2 cylinder heads and the water jacket. Ran fine for years but I routinely had to top off the radiator, never could find a leak. After 4 years of this the crack widened to the point it started smoking sweet smelling fog. Took it in and found out about the crack in the head and problems with the two cylinders. So had to replace the head and rebuld the rest. Moral of this story ;If they can't find a leak going out, its got to go somewhere.

good luck[:I]
steve. 03 PTGT stick Stage 1

[bobs turbo pt]

any smell of anti freeze??

[Hooligan]

quote:Originally posted by bobs turbo pt

any smell of anti freeze??

...also check the tailpipe for the smell of antifreeze, both when running and shut down.

[littleblueGT]

It could be something simple like the OEM hose clamps. Check to see if the upper and lower radiator hoses rotate easily, if they do replace the clamps with standard screw type hose clamps.Warm the engine and check all of the heater lines, and check for pin holes in the radiator hoses. An easy way to check for internal engine coolant loss is to pull the dip stick after the engine is warm and look at the oil. If the oil looks normal with no froth or bubbles or milky color, you are OK.If you take and put a drop of oil on the exhaust manifold it should just flow and smoke, not bubble and boil.The OEM spring type hose clamps are the usual suspect though, especially for the trany, power steering, etc.

[onyx pt]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will let you know what I find out.

[quicksilverdon]

quote:Originally posted by littleblueGT

An easy way to check for internal engine coolant loss is to pull the dip stick after the engine is warm and look at the oil. If the oil looks normal with no froth or bubbles or milky color, you are OK.

Well, yes and no. No cloudy/milky oil means collant isn't mixing with oil, but it COULD be going into combustion chamber (smell exhaust) or leak to outside.
Check the radiator cap - look around it for signs of leakage, and you may want to replace it. All the posts were things to check.

[LoboMX]

Similar trouble here but a lot worse.

My PT ('03 GT 5 Speed 27k miles) is at the stealer, they are charging me with 600 bucks for a new radiator and its supports, a month ago the problem started without any visible leak and the gauge reading always the middle point, the radiator fan became so loud that sometimes i couldn't hear the engine i checked the coolant deposit and opened the radiator cap both dry, poured like a gallon of bottled water with coolant at 40%, the situation reapeated once a week until the past week arriving to the park lot i noticed a spot under the car and liquid dripping, driving back to home after 5 miles the noise comming from the fan was really loud that everybody was staring at me on the lights but all the time the temp gauge was at the middle mark until that moment the gauge started to move to the red slowly and just few feet from home the beeping and the temp light came on.

After 2 days of diagnose the tech told me that the radiator had a crack and it needs to be changed with both supports (upper and lower).


My question is: How the radiator got the crack without being hit directly?

[wait4me6920]

quote:Originally posted by LoboMX

Similar trouble here but a lot worse.

After 2 days of diagnose the tech told me that the radiator had a crack and it needs to be changed with both supports (upper and lower).


My question is: How the radiator got the crack without being hit directly?

Could be as a result of vibration, though you certainly don't have that many miles on the car.

Man, I'd be tempted to take it to an independent radiator shop - $600 sounds pretty steep to me...

[LoboMX]

quote:Originally posted by wait4me6920
Could be as a result of vibration, though you certainly don't have that many miles on the car.

Man, I'd be tempted to take it to an independent radiator shop - $600 sounds pretty steep to me...

Yeah, less than 30k miles
A very good advice but let me tell you something, the streets in this city (Guadalajara, Mexico) are pure crap: holes everywhere (and bad patched in the better case), bumps everywhere (i don't know why everybody in this city believes they have the right to install a bump freely) plus boyes (a half metal spheres of 6" embedded on the road acting like bumps, yes the gov thinks they can solve the speed issue with bumps everywhere too) driving an almost 2 tons car under that conditions must be a lot of stress for all its structures. I supose the vibration's issue makes a lot of sense.

The cost of the brand new radiator is around $430, the upper support $50, the lower support $120 plus a handwork of $90, good $690 but trying an independent shop could be very risky, given the economical situation everyone is looking for profit via easy cash or the the minimum effort law, so the chances of "naively" becoming a "regular" custumer of that kind of shop are high, and by "naively" and "regular" i mean not by custumer's satisfaction, but that they solve the problem but creates a new one or simply they never get the job done correctly
meanwhile they suck your money and your time and you will end up at the dealer's paying the original "high" amount and all the new mess.
[:0] this is a mess. [xx(]

But anyways thanxs for your comments