Loosing antifreeze
 

I am noticing that I am loosing antifreeze at a very slow rate....suggestings? :confused:

I assume that you have late model truck. Fill in your signature with truck details for more help.

Check hose clamps on radiator and heater hoses.
Check passenger side of engine, next to oil filter, where the block heater screws into the block. A few guys have found a small amount of leaking there. To fix, just screw it in a little more.

If the coolant level is still between the add and full marks, in the overflow bottle, no problem.

I had to put a hose clamp on the radiator overflow hose at the plastic bottle at around 24K miles. It was easy to see the fluid in/around the recess's on the air filter box.

Rather than guess... load your cooling system (engine off) with a pressure tester to about 20 psi... see if it holds pressure over at least half hour ... If nothing appears evident cold, do it again at operating temp (engine off of course)... after being very careful to loosen the cap under a big protective towel or warm it up from cold with the cap turned only to its fist notch... If leak exists, it will reveal itself as the pressure drops... I mentioned a half hour above... sometimes it takes overnight for a tiny leak...

Also got to mention worst case scenario would be an internal leak into the engine oil... sign of this would be the oil going from transparent shiny to milky...

SBishop....For the life of me I cannot figure out how to complete my signature. Thanks for the suggestions on tightening the hose clamps. :) Sometimes the most simple solution is the most evasive!

BulaBula...Thanks for the suggestion!

Dr. Diesel....My oil is not milky. I will check the clamps over the weekend and will report back next week! If it is still leaking I will do the preassure check next.

Thanks for the good suggestions! :)

Had to do the same thing to my 2004 truck.coobie

Also check the freeze plugs on the passenger side of the motor (below the exhaust manifold).

Check your freeze plugs. Afew months back there was somthing about a problem on a few motors with freeze plug problems.
Check. Do a search and see what you can find.

John :D

my truck's antifreeze level changes daily with the weather. its weird but one day it is full the next day its low. I have seen no signs of leaks any where so i just keep an eye on mine. good luck and hope its just the same thing as mine

It was wierd....For the past year it never varied a drop, and then "WHAM!" it drops about 2 inchs in the overflow!

I have topped it of and have been watching it like a hawk, but it still is dropping a little very day. I thought it may have been a "bubble".... but with 7500 miles??

I will keep everyone posted...thnaks for the help! :)

I need to add something to this thread. My truck has always slowly lost antifreez in the coolant bottle. I just brought it back up to level, It used maybe a pint, more or less in 20,000 miles.

This truck has done this through three engines, a heater core replacement and all new hoses.

I have also noticed that if I keep it full to or slightly above the full line on the overflow, it will use more. It goes down fairly rapid till it reaches half way between the full and low lines, then it slows down to very little.

I used a zip tie where the overflow hose attaches to the radiator. Mine was leaking all over the airbox. fixed it no problem

Again, thanks everyone for the quick responses! :)

I sniffed all over the engine Friday night and for the life of me I cannot find anyplace that is even damp. My truck has those clamps that are made to squeeze open with a pair of pliers, not unscrew with a screw driver...and they appeared to be very tight.

Like I said earlier, it has not lost a drop til last week..and then it dropped about 2 inches. The only thing I can think of is I changed the Edge EZ from setting 3 to 4 :D and put in a TAG...but that should have no bearing in the antifreeze level.

Any other suggestions on this situation would be appreciated :(

Would/could the the radiater cap be the problem?? :confused:

...the saga continues :rolleyes:

After many phone calls to my circle of diesel techheads, I think I have found the leak at one of the heater hoses on the left hand side of the motor. There seems to have been the reminients of some drying water on the exhaust manifold. Further sniffing is in order!

I will keep everyone posted....:rolleyes: