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for the past month i been needing to fill the coolant tank. in a week it goes down to half. it leaks occasionally but not enough to cause coolant loss like that. it looks like its dripping from the radiator or the lower hose ,well thats wehere the puddle is . but apon inspection theres no sign of it leaking recently, although their is surface rust. idk where else to look or do . ( car runs fine does NOT over heat even on a warm day)
1996 chrysler cirrus lxi 2.5 l mfi v6
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it’s probably leaking in the form of steam; it doesn’t necessary pool at the bottom as a puddle of antifreeze under ye’ car. more than likely you are losing coolant in the form of steam when the cooling system is under pressure.
If you can’t actually see the leak happening, borrow a cooling system pressure tester from someone, an auto parts store or even a radiator repair shop to let them test it for you. Pump it up to about 13-15 PSI watch the gauge for drops in pressure. Make sure to pressure test your radiator cap too. There’s an adapter for that. Check around the radiator of course, but also look for pin hole leaks on hoses, around clamps, thermostat housing, water pump weep hole and shaft, check for wet spots below the heater box on the floor in the front passenger seat. Check for the sweet smell of antifreeze around your engine head and tail-pipe. If you see the tester gauge pressure dropping off and can’t see the leak, try listening for it.
BTW, there may be more than one source of leak(s) and even if it evaporates into steam when the engine is at operating temp, it’s got to be coming out of the system from somewhere. Radiator caps are a classic source as the gaskets breakdown over time.
Also, see if the auto parts store like O’Reilly has some indicator dye you can put in your radiator and use a UV light to find drips that way too.
+1 ^ on the Pressure Test. It makes a coolant leak from a radiator or pipe much easier to find as without the engine running you can follow the drip without it drying up.
Keep us posted
its kinda makes sense now, the cap isnt on the radiator, but the connection where the the cap is and the uper rad hose meet is rusty but is never wet. the cap looks like its a replacement
Yep. You might just have found the source of your leak. The filler neck on the top of the radiator can corrode and crack and any coolant leak up there, where it gets quite hot and evaporates before you can have a chance to get out of the car and pop the hood. Over time and with corrosion, the solder joint on the neck breaks down and leak when the system gets up to pressure. Easy to find with a leak detector.
Sometimes (rarely) they can be soldered at a radiator shop, other times the radiator is toast and you have to replace it. Broken necks are hard to fix but the brighter side is that radiators aren’t all that pricey and you can replace it yourself. Eric did a video on that too. Once again, I recommend a pressure test it to be sure that’s your problem.
i replaced the rad cap. so far havent had any leaks and the system is now preasurizing . the old cap didnt look bad but the spring was weak in it looks like the original cap
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