Where does the coolant go!

[Pimpin Dsmstyle]

91 talon tsi AWD. I haven't personally tried to figure out this problem because the car is not insured and I don't want to drive it.

Problem : Car runs out of coolant thus over heat.

Situation : I had the car for a few months and I never noticed any remote sort of over heating ( ran cool, constant) nor did I notice it losing any coolant. The car didn't leak anything, I was pretty sure of this!

My friend drove it for a few months without any problems. Then he brought it to Jet to get all of his performance work done. After my buddy picked up the car Jet mentioned that the car had no coolant and we should fix that. He filled it up and called it good. Car runs fine... sometime over winter the tools were out "drifting" in the snow and somehow broke the temp sensor wire that has 2 wires running to the white plug on the from of the T-Stat housing. They never fixed it.

As foolish as it is, several months later, that was still not fixed. The car started over heating after that. The kid ordered a toyo radiator that is still not in yet and the wire is STILL not fixed. The car pulls like an SOB so I have a hard time thinking it's the head gasket.

I'm going to fix that wire so I can actually see where the temp is ( I am extremely shocked they never fixed this). The over flow tank is similar to where it used to be but it is in front of the radiator fan since the IC piping was routed where a stock located overflow is.

Words of advice? Things to check? If you don't leak it.. and your head gasket is fine ( testing comp the only way to see?) WTF else could it be.

[Goat Blower]

If it's not leaking anywhere, it's a headgasket or a crack in the head. You can't always see the normal signs of a HG failure, a compression test or pressurizing the cylinders and checking the overflow are good tests.

[Halon]

That sensor you're talking about, I've been without it for months as well. All it does is tell the A/C fan when to kick on.

[Gravy]

Huh.... i've just thought of something.

Fill your coolant, run it for a while and see what happens.

[Goat Blower]

Originally Posted by Gravy

Huh.... i've just thought of something.

Fill your coolant, run it for a while and see what happens.

Thanks genius, you've solved the whole problem.

[Pimpin Dsmstyle]

Originally Posted by Gravy

Huh.... i've just thought of something.

Fill your coolant, run it for a while and see what happens.

WOW GREAT ADVICE! If I could see the TEMP of the engine MAYBE I would try that! I have to fix one problem before fixing the other. I was simply looking for ideas. Wishful thinking I suppose.

Steve - I am going to figure out why I don't have a temp gauge then fill it up, let the coolant flow, fill it up more.. get it so the coolant is where it should be. After that is taken care of, I will do a compression test. I don't have a way to do a leak down test. There is supposed to be a radiator coming in for the car.

Usually when a headgasket goes, the compression numbers will be scattered depending on where the break in the gasket is correct? What would I look for if the compression comes out to 15x in all holes? I could visually look for a crack in the head but god only knows how tough it could be to find that.

Step one though, fix the temp gauge! Tomorrow I'll do that amongst other things.

[Gravy]

Sarcasm out the ass.

Ok, reason i made such a simple statment, maybe its leaking from a hose somewhere in the engine. I know i had a loose hose after removing and re-installing the turbo on my car. So, you could be losing that along the engine it's self, and either be dripping onto the ground, or evaporating away slow enough your not seeing the smoke.

Other thing, check for bubbles in your hose. Fill it up, start the car and see if bubbles start coming out.

It may be a simple statment.... but sometimes it's best to start with the easy, then work on pulling the head. Wouldn't you rather find out a hose is lose then pulling the head to find out nothing's wrong?

[Pushit2.0]

You can use the hose of your compression gauge to perform a "leak down" test. You will not get a % but you can see where the pressure is going. Take the valve out of the part that threads into the head, same as a valve stem on your rim, then put the cylinder to TDC on the compression stroke, then hook your air hose up to it and listen/look for leaks, coolent, crank case, intake or exhaust valve seats is where it would be leaking from.

~John

[Goat Blower]

You're going to see a low compression number in one or two of the cylinders, even if it's a cracked head, which I doubt. Sounds like a classic blown gasket to me.

And the "L" shaped connector is the temp gauge. The upper white plug is for the AC.

[xveganxcowboyx]

+1 for a compression test. A good chance one or more of your cyclinders reads low.

[Pimpin Dsmstyle]

I didn't get a chance to deal with it this weekend. I'm hoping to get around to it tomorrow or the day after.