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Hello, The car I just bought runs and drives great at 90,000 miles but I am experiencing about an inch of coolant loss with about an 1 hour of driving.
The oil is not milky, No white smoke from the exhaust I do not see any visible leaks or cracked hoses.
The cap seems to be tight with a slight pink crust at the top. Please do not tell me a blown head gasket .
Easiest and cheapest fix would be to test the coolant cap to see if it holds pressure. It may seem tight but that doesn't mean it's good and the pink crust might be a sign that it's not.
They also make kits to test to see if there are any combustion gases in your coolant...if it's not the cap and you don't have any leaks then the coolant is going somewhere else. I won't tell you it's a blown head gasket but the test might.
Um, he can't test the cap or radiator. 2nd gen xB doesn't have a radiator cap as it's mounted too low. Instead it has an expansion tank setup with a plastic snap on top. You can see the tank in the picture below, it's off to the far left with the two hoses going into it from the radiator and upper coolant hose. Still might be able to use the tester to test the whole system from the tank. Common coolant failure points for the xB2 are the water pump seal, crack in the expansion tank, the stupid Y connector for the upper hose from the tank to the far side of the radiator and upper coolant hose and of course the ever fun cracked end tanks for the radiator. Look for the bright pink crust, where you see it is the likely leak points.
Um, he can't test the cap or radiator. 2nd gen xB doesn't have a radiator cap as it's mounted too low. Instead it has an expansion tank setup with a plastic snap on top. You can see the tank in the picture below, it's off to the far left with the two hoses going into it from the radiator and upper coolant hose. Still might be able to use the tester to test the whole system from the tank. Common coolant failure points for the xB2 are the water pump seal, crack in the expansion tank, the stupid Y connector for the upper hose from the tank to the far side of the radiator and upper coolant hose and of course the ever fun cracked end tanks for the radiator. Look for the bright pink crust, where you see it is the likely leak points.
Expansion tank is basically chopping off top of radiator w/cap and mounting it remotely. It still is pressurised like rest of cooling system. And cap on expansion-tank is exactly same as radiator cap with spring-loaded relief valve. Note pressure rating of 15psi. If you see pink crusty dried coolant around cap, it's most likely has failed and needs replacing.
Radiator and entire cooling system can be tested just like normal. Just need little adapter that screws into expansion tank and normal pressure-tester can be used.
Pump up system to 15psi and look for leaks. If there's no drips under car overnight, where is coolant going?
Use combustion-gasses tester to see if you've got them in your coolant. Might be headgasket that's blown. These cars seem to blow headgaskets more frequently than regular Toyotas for some strange reason.
Easiest and cheapest fix would be to test the coolant cap to see if it holds pressure. It may seem tight but that doesn't mean it's good and the pink crust might be a sign that it's not.
They also make kits to test to see if there are any combustion gases in your coolant...if it's not the cap and you don't have any leaks then the coolant is going somewhere else. I won't tell you it's a blown head gasket but the test might.
I replaced the cap. I test drove it for an hour without loss and have been driving back and forth to work for a week without any loss yet... so far so good!
How in the world can that much escape from the cap?
will keep you all updated if it holds up next week.
Easiest and cheapest fix would be to test the coolant cap to see if it holds pressure. It may seem tight but that doesn't mean it's good and the pink crust might be a sign that it's not.
They also make kits to test to see if there are any combustion gases in your coolant...if it's not the cap and you don't have any leaks then the coolant is going somewhere else. I won't tell you it's a blown head gasket but the test might.
looks like it was the cap! I have been driving it a week without any loss. Let's see how it holds up.
I replaced the cap. I test drove it for an hour without loss and have been driving back and forth to work for a week without any loss yet... so far so good!
How in the world can that much escape from the cap?
Because the cap is supposed to hold pressure when the system gets up to temperature, which further raises the 'boiling point' of your coolant mix, and when it can't it starts to push out the cap. You'd be surprised how much coolant you can lose out of just a bad cap.
Heavy Coolant Loss..2010 Scion xB..
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