So ive been noticing that after i drive my teg at least 30mins...gets up to temp etc...i notice that the coolant res is usually almost full and the top radiator hose is...empty.I refill the radiator with the overflow res. So what is the issue?



These pics were taken after bout 45 mins of driving and letting the car sit overnight.


Modified by djtsmith007 at 1:44 PM 9/21/2007

 

rad cap?

i'm not entirely sure what the problem is... is the car overheating?

i know if the reservoir overflows it could be the rad cap. New one fixed it for me. The reservoir is just for excess coolant, there should be coolant already in the engine and the radiator.

 

Guess ill explain a lil more. The engine while up to temp and sitting at a red light idling will get hotter and once i give it the gas to go, the engine temp will go back down. So in having that issue, i noticed that the overflow was staying full and the top radiator hose is always empty....i know cause i pull it off..look inside there is very little in there. As seen in the last picture

 

anyone?

 

thermostat not opening? is the hoses getting hot?

i would check to see if the coolant is circulating thru the system.

 

Sounds like you just have air in the system that you need to bleed out. Fill the radiator all the way up (squeeze the top and bottom hoses to help get the fluid all the way down in the motor), then fill the overflow to the top line. Finally put the radiator cap on 1 click (not all the way, just one click) when the car is cold and drive it around until it is warm....when warm, close the cap and that should solve the problem.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by supracrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">thermostat not opening? is the hoses getting hot?

i would check to see if the coolant is circulating thru the system. </TD></TR></TABLE>

hoses are def getting hot.

i put a new rad cap on that has helped keep the temp down. once the car cools off ill go check everything again

 

well i was having this problem and it turned out that i had blown the headgasket and the compression from the cylinder was going to tmy coolant. Turn the car on without the radiator cap and rev it see wut happends

 

Are you burning, or leaking coolant ? If you have to keep adding coolant it must be going some where besides the over flow. Also make sure your cap is good, if the cap is not holding pressure, the boiling point in the system then goes down.

 

My first guess would be your cap. A blown headgasket could do that, but its easy to check. Like mentioned, leave the cap off. Rev the engine and if coolant comes shooting out, time to test for compression and possibly put in a new gasket.
With a good Cap, the system will naturally bleed out any air. When your engine cools off, when air is present, it will create a vacuum and the cap should open inward a bit, allowing the system to pull in coolant from the overflow. On your next start, it should burp out its air once hot and then replace that with more coolant when it cools, until there is no more air. I could be wrong, but thats what I've always understood, and it seems to work just like that. Top off the radiator, top off the overflow and usually within a couple drive, the overflow needs to be filled back to full.

Let us know what you come across.
Does it smell like coolant at all after a day drive? May have a leak.