Magical Coolant Leak

[Alexander Trzok]

Good afternoon all…

I have a 2011 Dodge Caliber SXT. 2L Engine. 113K, bought used so only 71k miles put on by me.. She’s been a fine beast but I feel like she’s getting to be more hassle than worth and I haven’t even finished paying for it yet (judging by the length of this post, that is definitely a story for another time). Front end seems to be weak. I’ve done control arms for the ball joints once already and it’s starting to feel like it needs doing again. Replaced all tires 3 times already and came with brand new when I bought it.Chews up front brakes, replaced 3 times in 71K miles and needs a 4th about nowish i’m probably at about 15-20% life according to the rainbow gauge from my local Princess Auto (Harbor Freight for us Canucks)

I seem to have an exceedingly slow magical coolant leak that i cannot find the source of. I haven’t had to ADD coolant in about 2 weeks… week and a half… But about 2 months ago the reserve jug was empty. I checked my oil at a gas stop and couldn’t check the rad because it was hot I’m not down for a burn.
I topped it off. Kinda forgot about it. Seemed fine later but i kept forgetting to check the rad.

So 2 weeks ago I hear a sloshing sound coming from the engine bay on startup. I figured at the time… air in the system. But then again where’d all my coolant go???

So I topped it up and I’ll admit I did not have time to bleed it properly… So could there be air in… maybe? I burped it several times over the week and added coolant as it seemed to decrease (not gallons but another quart or so still went in). I still couldn’t shake it. Where’d all the coolant go.

I borrowed a coolant pressure tester and block tester from an apprentice mechanic friend (i only qualify that because it was a lucky borrow and not something he has access to have with him at any time and that factors in, in a second).

So I hooks up the coolant pressure tester pumps it up to 16lbs. I’ve got the car up on stands and am looking underneath and all around listening for hissing or frankly for dripping. Nothing detected.
By the time I’ve looked in and under… a good 4-5 minutes or so, I get back up and pressure has dropped to about 15

So he helps do the block test. He asks me to get in and start it up and rev the engine “solidly” as he put it, 3 times. Each time i rev he pumps the block tester. 1st time… nothing. 2nd time, i see coolant out of the rad cap and he pumps the tester… there’s a small change in the colour still blue. 3rd time I rev it some coolant comes spraying out of the rad (and into his face and mouth!) with the tester in it as he’s pumping. And the colour changes a little more. And yes to yellow. However, a weird dark yellow… from how i’ve seen block testers work they tend to turn bright urine yellow rather than whatever this was. I wonder if coolant could have corrupted the test? He didn’t speak to that, but he called “yellow fluid, head gasket is bad”.

He wasn’t enthusiastic about running the test again… it wasn’t his and i didn’t want to cause him any grief with his boss.

So problem here is this.
I don’t have access to diagnostic tools. There aren’t any stores relatively near me that will rent them. I’m concerned about a long drive as if it IS a head gasket i’d rather it not blow completely and overheat to the nines and i might as well buy a new engine.

However, I have NONE of the other expected symptoms of a head gasket leak or failure. Oils not chocolatey or discoloured in any way. Coolant doesn’t have oil in it. Plugs look okay to me. They’re not brand new but they’re dry and don’t look fouled up by oil and they’re not wet. I can’t see moisture down in the plug well. We’re not coughing scads/any white smoke out of the tail pipe, and exhaust isn’t drippy nor do i smell any sweet maple syrupy smells from anywhere (it is Canada afterall so take that with a grain of salt eh?). The only thing I do notice is inconsistency in the temp gauge on the dash. It hasn’t yet gone above 1/2, that i’ve seen, and in the last two weeks i’ve had to drive it to and from work which is about 20 miles one way. The, temp seems to fluctuate in tiny increments. Also when idling it doesn’t overheat but I generally don’t let it just idle. If i’m stopped for any length of time (waiting for someone in a store or whathaveyou) i shut it down. The only time I idle is at reds or waiting to move or like a drive through and even then i’ve only seen it get to 1/2 which is normal.

I know I said that, frankly, I failed the block test and the fluid went yellow. So I’m kind of expecting a heag gasket issue, but given the distinct lack of other symptoms and narrowness of wallet, I can’t afford to bring it to a shop and throw the book at it to see what sticks. Essentially given the cornucopia of BS i spouted up above i’m wondering what the most recommended tests would be. Or what other directions I could also look to find a/the problem.

I mean it’s a Caliber not a Rolls and Frankly i just need about another 18 months out of her till she’s paid off so I can consider replacing because I’m not sure i can justify $2000 for a headgasket replacement on top. No disrespect to you gear heads.

Also Eric, if you’re reading this, Love the videos and respect your opinion but this is gonna have to be a “stop leak” fix because I certainly don’t have the skills to Diy. Frankly I’m just a dork in the lot with a couple wrenches and a good attitude. I know I have limits. Unless i wanted a giant paperweight in the parking lot of my apartment building. Sorry man… maybe next time 😉

Topic

[Billy]

Sounds like you don’t trust your friend’s block test. You can do your own with a $35 Lisle kit.

Might be worth throwing a new rad cap at it. Preferably OEM.

[James]

It stinks that coolant could of got in and potentially corrupted test however if it shoots high enough to hit your friend in face on reving, you have a head gasket issue. That is compression pushing the coolant out like that. Stop leak will be a waste of time.
Either fix it or drive it and keep eye on temp, oil and coolant.
Best of luck.

[Alexander Trzok]

Fair enough. However im gonna have to call an audible here.

This is not how the rad behaves usually. I can rev it with the cap off and get narry a bubble. Fluid does its normal thing.

However I’d suppose If a 200 lb gorilla hamfists a rubber plug in the rad fill port i would imagine the system might have pressurize a bit and since then just jerked the tester off the rad i would imagine that pressure had to go somewhere.

Like i said it doesn’t do anything if its just open and floating around in there.

However I agree wholeheartedly that I’ll be watching the oil coolant and temp!

[zero]

Ya, I would fork out the few bucks to buy a kit and do it again. And you are right about the pressure needing somewhere to go. Especially if the engine was at temperature. If it was cold, it shouldn’t have built pressure/temperature that fast.

You don’t replace the head gasket on something a common and normal as a base Caliber. You put in a used motor. Less labour and used engines are everywhere for them. Even if you don’t do it yourself, you’re looking at maybe 6 hours for the R&R plus the engine. car-part.com is your friend.

[Alexander Trzok]

Hey DaFirnz, I really appreciate the website! I did not know about that and it’s fantastic!

I appreciate everything everyone. I’ll update when changes happen!

[Alexander Trzok]

Hey All,

Just because I’m a completionist, i figured a follow up was in order. That way at least you can all stop worrying about lil’ ol me! 😛

In any case.
Not sure how much time anyone has spent in the bay of a 2011 caliber but the airbox is in a relatively inconvenient location. It sits directly next to the engine with cabling for the ecm coming out the top and draping itself Ursula style all over the right side of the engine and all the goodies underneath. Long story short it makes for a pain to see beneath it.

Well I returned to the shop, we got a new kit. Did a pressure test on the coolant system and it seemed to mostly hold pressure. Pumped to 15lbs and well.. it did drop. Engine was on the cooler side of luke warm at the time, it dropped from the tippity top of 15lbs to just slightly below that within about in about 5 or so minutes, less than 1lb of loss. No fluctuations in pressure while the car was on and idle.
We block tested again after removing some fluid, and the block fluid remained blue after multiple attempts.

Dismayed we got all up in her. By the sheer grace of sunlight my brother in law spotted a tiny puddle of coolant floating in a rusty square on the top of the transmission. Just beneath the thermostat housing.

So i purchased both thermostats and a jug of concentrate and went to work.
I inspected the housing and surrounding hosiery for any signs of cracks or damage and found nothing.
I flushed out the old coolant.
Put in the new stats.
mixed up and added the new coolant. And well. Things have been better.
Now, I will say this. Major pain in the butt to flush this thing out. With 2 thermostats opening at different temps it’s challenging to guarantee you’ve got good circular flow throughout. For me, anyways, i’m just a dork with a wrench and by no means “skilled”.
It took several flushes before i was getting clean water out. There isn’t an air bleeder valve anywhere i could find and i didn’t see one in the fsm either.

But in any case. Temp seems a little more stable. It’s acting how by all accounts Dodge, is “expected behaviour”.

Getting the air out is a pain. I tried for a great deal of time > 30-40 minutes to just run with the front end elevated and let the air work itself out. I’m not certain i got it all.

The first day or two after i did the work the temp gauge was hotter than usual. Closer to 1/2 way on the gauge rather than about 2/5th. However after some driving (according to the fsm hwy driving should allow this car to work the air out of the system through the overflow tank on its own) it’s much more stable.
gets to about 3/7ths to 2.3/5ths but stays stable. Also doesn’t seem to drift higher and higher as i idle any longer not rapidly anyways, and increasing to a point would be expected i’d think.

However, i have had to add a little coolant. About a cup over the last week. I’m thinking positive and chalking that up to air working its way out of the system as “promised” and me needed to just top it up and backfill.

Time will ultimately tell over all. And now that i’ve said it out loud i’ve probably jinxed it.

However, i wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions and helping me stick with it! It was worth it!

[Author]

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