My gfs 94 cavalier is having a coolant problem. THE COOLANT DISAPEARS. I fill up the resevoir, and when we go out come back in and the coolant is all gone. I don't see any visiable leakes anywhere, and the low coolant light doesn't light up, if there is one. The heat doesn't go up either, but that may mean that it is also faulty. Please anyone have any ideas to what might cause this problem. I put in a whole gallon of coolant in 2 days and the reservoir is empty. I also want to know how many liters it takes to get the rad and reservoir filled. In case there was no coolant and so it all stayed in the rad
THANKS


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Imports better know they drive on Domestic roads....

Have you had to open up the cooling system recently to do any work like replace a water pump or do a coolant change? Take off the oil fill cap and see if there is any brown sludge or milky white stuff in there. You may have a bad head gasket that is causing the coolant and oil to mix. If you cant tell by looking at the cap I would change the oil to get a better look. Another thing, does the car shoot out white smoke from the tail pipe and what motor is it?



http://members.cardomain.com/scrawnyguy18

Ok first off, its a 2.2

The oil has recently been changed and when checked there was nothing but oil on the dip stick. Secondely.. I dont think there is any smoke but I would have to recheck to make sure. Lastly, no work has been done recently and I dont even know when it first emptied. My gf is the one that drives it and she never checks anything. I noticed, because we did the oil change, and when I check other fluids, I noticed no coolant. I filled up the reservoir with 3.5 liters of coolant. the enxt day it was all gone. So I filled up with half a liter, which filled the reservoir back up to full, and today there is none again. The car stayed in the same place for over 6 hours, and no coolant missing. I guess it is not losing it when it is stopped.


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Imports better know they drive on Domestic roads....

any help


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Imports better know they drive on Domestic roads....

Since you dont know when it was all replaced last I would recommend doing a coolant "flush" on it and then top the system back off so you know that the level is exactly full to begin with. I dont know how mechanicaly inclined you are (if you are then dont bother reading this) so if you wondered how to do this there is a drain valve on the bottom part of the radiator, it will either be on the far left or far right side. Loosen the valve up with a pair of pliers so that the coolant comes out of the radiator. Once it quits dripping, twist the valve back in and then fill the system up with more coolant. Start the vehicle with the radiator cap off while the engine reaches operating temps. The cooling fan will come on and the upper radiator hose will get warm once the engine is up to temp. You should notice the coolant level going down at this point. Rev the engine above idle while dumping coolant into the radiator, the coolant will come out the radiator kneck so make sure you have something protecting your arms. This is how you get the air out of the system to eliminate hot pockets. Put the cap back on and fill the resevoir to the full hot mark and then wait to see if it goes down. I would also take a sniff at the tailpipe....not for too long duh....to see if it smells sweet. Antifreeze will smell sweet and make your exhaust a white color. You could also follow her around for a little while and see if her exhaust is white. Good luck



http://members.cardomain.com/scrawnyguy18

I will try to fill it up, run the car stopped and wait until the coolant drops into the radiator, and then notice if it leaks to the floor. Basically if it is leaking, its leaking while its driving because whn it is stopped, there is nothing on the ground. Any other ideas if that doesn't work


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Imports better know they drive on Domestic roads....

I don't understand. I can`t remove the radiator cap. It unlocks but stays there. Is that normal, and if so, where do I fill up the radiator then, if the cap wont come off.


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Imports better know they drive on Domestic roads....

There should be two spots on the cap that will align with something on the car when the cap is tightened. I'm trying to remember on my old 92 Z24 I think there was two arrows one that pointed towards a hose coming off of the radiator and I dont remember where the other hose pointed towards. Twist the cap off, lefty loosey righty tighty. You may need to push a little down on the cap to get the seal to break loose, there may be a slight hissing sound because of the pressure. DO NOT DO THIS WHEN THE ENGINE IS WARM!!!! The cooling system is under pressure and you will be burned by the coolant, not a good thing. The cap should spin, you may need to jiggle it a little bit to get it to come off of the kneck. There are a few "fingers" on the metal radiator cap that lock it in place when it is tight. These are probably getting caught on the kneck and just need to be jiggled loose. Let me know how it works out.



http://members.cardomain.com/scrawnyguy18

I was told to flush the system when it is hot, because the fluid comes out of the engine. Now you are telling me that I can have the car hot, but then I wont get the coolant out of the engine

And on my protege, the cap doesn't come off either.


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Imports better know they drive on Domestic roads....

Push down on the cap while you are turning. You may have to push hard. I had the same problem with my old 1993 Cavalier (same engine as yours) and the problem ended up being the upper radiator hose. It would only leak when the engine was hot. Also check the water pump. The head gasket may also be the problem but I doubt it. The bad 2.2 head gaskets I have seen all start to leak on the left front corner of the head (near the #4 cylinder).


God bless America.

It might be a leak, but 4L of liquid disappeared in just 2 days. Unless of course and I am hoping that there was just a lot of coolant missing from before, but even then... Where did it all go. Nothing looks wet either.


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Imports better know they drive on Domestic roads....

Hi Kev

Just a thought

When the coolant is hot, with the engine stopped,you might want to put some gloves on and quickly squeeze and release the top hose to see if there is a pinhole leak in one of the hoses.
I had this demonstrated to me a while back and it soon showed a thin stream of coolant from a pinhole in the hose.
The car did not leak when stoped but lost coolant during a drive.

Good Luck


Alont

Big Kev wrote:I was told to flush the system when it is hot, because the fluid comes out of the engine. Now you are telling me that I can have the car hot, but then I wont get the coolant out of the engine

And on my protege, the cap doesn't come off either.

Something is messed up because the cap should be able to come off, every car that I have worked on the cap has come off. Some with a little manipulation and others with ease.

I never said that you wont be able to get the coolant out of the car when it is hot. You can get it out but it will be extremely hot..close to 200 degrees F. So if you do this, take the necessary precautions for the very hot liquid that has been known to cause severe skin burns....trust me.



http://members.cardomain.com/scrawnyguy18

I had a similar issue and it got much worse so i ended up investigating it. Turned out to be the water pump. It only leaked when the engine was runing, didnt do it when it was off. When its idling look under the car near the passenger wheel, if its driping there, then its probably the water pump leaking through the weap hole. The waterpumps are a chronic ill on the 2.2/2200. And my leak got bad enough to loose all the coolent from the reservoir in less then 20 miles of driving so it can be pretty bad. But when i had little coolent the low coolent light came on (2000 model so it has one, dont know when they added that in) and the temp acted funny, it would cool poorly at low rpms and better at high rpms even when not moving so the problems arent exactly the same, but i would definatly check the pump as well as the other suggestions mentioned before. Worse case scenerio would be head gasket, hopefully its not.