coolant leak?

[FNEG]

well i have a phantom leak. so here is the story i have a 98 ti cali and well about and about 2 months ago i noticed i was heating up to the 3/4 mark so i went home and parked it then the next morning i had a creek of coolant running out from under the car. but the next day i started working 14 hours a day 7 days a week till today. so i got up filled the car up with coolant to see where the leak is coming from. so i bled it and well no leak even when the coolant system was full warmed up to 12 o'clock. i drove it for an hour and still nothing. keep in mind that when i first saw the leak about 2 months ago i had about a gallon of coolant on the ground. so i checked the oil dip stick to make sure i didn't see any coffee in the motor and it was good and i rev'ed the motor to see if i was chugging white smoke and nothing so now i am kinda at a loss. has anyone see this happen before?

[Kaiser]

This happened on my E30, took me forever to locate that there was a small gash in one of the rubber hoses. It was kinda near the fan, but still several inches away so I still have no clue what caused it, but removing the hose, swapping it and flushing the coolant system fixed it. I think a little bit of air got into there so you would have air bubbles cycling through and causing heat spikes. Anyway, check out the hoses, especially if it starts leaking again, hoses are usually the first place to look in that situation.

[roadrash]

Maybe look around for signs of evaporated coolant on the engine and radiator? That might give you a clue where the leak was/is.

[FNEG]

Originally Posted by Kaiser

This happened on my E30, took me forever to locate that there was a small gash in one of the rubber hoses. It was kinda near the fan, but still several inches away so I still have no clue what caused it, but removing the hose, swapping it and flushing the coolant system fixed it. I think a little bit of air got into there so you would have air bubbles cycling through and causing heat spikes. Anyway, check out the hoses, especially if it starts leaking again, hoses are usually the first place to look in that situation.

if i had a dash wouldn't spray out under pressure after i filled it back up and bled it?

[FNEG]

Originally Posted by roadrash

Maybe look around for signs of evaporated coolant on the engine and radiator? That might give you a clue where the leak was/is.

the only sign i see is under the intake manifold about 3 inches down from the head gasket it looks like there might have be a puddle there at one time. what is that plastic hose that comes out the block and makes a 90 degree turn going toward the fire wall? it looks if that is coolant in that pipe then that could have caused that puddle there. but i just went to check it and still no leak any where?

[Kaiser]

Originally Posted by FNEG

if i had a dash wouldn't spray out under pressure after i filled it back up and bled it?

Maybe, like I said, mine would be a flood one day, I would fill it back up and wait for it to come out again and nothing for a week or two. With it being rubber a small cut in it won't cause it to leak unless there is a ton of pressure or it bows out or something like that, so maybe squeeze the hoses to see if you can see where a cut in them might be. Could be something else, but the fact that it happened and then stopped makes me think it is the same problem I had, and it is hard to find without knowing where to look.

[dave45056]

Originally Posted by FNEG

what is that plastic hose that comes out the block and makes a 90 degree turn going toward the fire wall?

That is a plastic pipe that will fail at some point. If yours hasn't been replaced, do it. Total failure on that part can cause a couple grand in damage.

Check out this thread:
http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=18066



And this one:

http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16068

[FNEG]

Originally Posted by Kaiser

Maybe, like I said, mine would be a flood one day, I would fill it back up and wait for it to come out again and nothing for a week or two. With it being rubber a small cut in it won't cause it to leak unless there is a ton of pressure or it bows out or something like that, so maybe squeeze the hoses to see if you can see where a cut in them might be. Could be something else, but the fact that it happened and then stopped makes me think it is the same problem I had, and it is hard to find without knowing where to look.

hopefully it turns up after it cools down i will go out and squeeze all the hoses to try to find it( i just drove it for about an hour and still nothing

[FNEG]

Originally Posted by dave45056

That is a plastic pipe that will fail at some point. If yours hasn't been replaced, do it. Total failure on that part can cause a couple grand in damage.

Check out this thread:
http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=18066



And this one:

http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16068

i found those threads and i am going to go on ahead and start ordering all the parts. is there any way to can all that stuff with out removing the intake? i know it will be harder to do with all that stuff in the way but i live at an apartment and my new landlord is a a$$

[FNEG]

ok i let it cool down all the way and bled it again this time it only took about 8 oz or so. then i drove her the rest of the day. first day off in 2 months so you can just imagine my list of stuff to do this weekend lol. but so far so good. very odd tonight i plan on ordering the plastic and hose replacements for her. the water pump and radiator was replaced about 9k ago but i don't know what else has been touched on it so i would rather be safer than sorry (stranded).

[FNEG]

well still no coolant leak and everything is running good till about a hour ago a got a rock in my ac condenser and have a nice hiss right now and no ac lol but atleast i know what the problem is so i can fix it.

[Kaliimc]

FNEG,
I just replaced the plastic piece that attaches to the block. No fun getting in there, it took roughly 2 hours.

Rough list of things I either took apart or loosened in order to replace the plastic piece:

Off - Upper Intake (5-10 minutes to take off, and 5-10 minutes back on)
Off - CAI and rubber connecting hoses (5 off, 5 on)
Off - Electrical connectors on Upper Intake (there are only two)
Off - Upper radiator hose (only because I was replacing the radiator too)
Off - Three coolant hose connectors from the plastic piece.
Loosened - Lower Intake (pulled it loose to fit my hands underneath)
Loosened - Fuel rail (only reason for this was to get to the intake nuts)

In a nutshell that's the major items. If you have any abilities in fixing cars, this should be fairly painless. All in all it took me several hours to replace the radiator and plastic piece, and I had never replace coolant parts before. Just last year I was apprehensive of changing the coolant!

My radiator had a crack somewhere near the expansion tank and was slowly leaking each time the car was shut off. I did not want a major blow out in the typical bumper to bumper traffic I'm in so decided to be proactive and replace it right away. $215 for the Nissen radiator and two gallons of 50/50 coolant did the trick, I already had the plastic coolant piece which is no more than $15 IIRC.

Back in February the "other" plastic coolant piece in-between the engine and firewall blew out while in evening traffic. That was replaced shortly after so now the old cooling system items on this car are the hoses which look good, and the water pump.

Although my car was built in 4/96, it only has 62,xxx miles on it. Age and weather conditions are probably the factors here.

[FNEG]

thanks for the info. i am waiting to my parts to come in. then i have to wait for time off from work to do it(might be a couple weeks)

[kmsnsx]

did you ever figure out the reason for the mystery coolant loss? I seem to have the same symptoms and can't figure it out.