Coolant Issue...

[scooby-wrx]

Hi Guys,

I'm having a rather strange coolant issue and was wondering if anyone has any idea what it could be...

I have a V3 STI that’s loosing coolant at an alarming rate. I top the catch tank up, take it for a good drive only to find its lost all the coolant (in the catch tank). There are no leaks in the system, had it pressure tested yesterday and that’s all great, the hoses are nice and warm, not blocked etc... but the coolant is boiling! The water is being spat out of the over-flow tank which leaves a nice green trail down the side of the car! So we thought it may be a head gasket, however the car runs perfectly and still pulls hard.

Planning on having a cylinder leakage test done later today / tomorrow.

Any advice would really be appreciated.

Thanks.

[titian]

Good idea to get that leak test done. Probably head gasket failure. (most likely anyways.)

[scooby-wrx]

 titian said:

Good idea to get that leak test done. Probably head gasket failure. (most likely anyways.)

Thanks for your input. Really appreciate it mate. Will keep this thread updated.

[RAYDEO]

my thoughts (possibly totally wrong)

• not bleed properly
  
• head gasket
  
• leaky header tank cap
  

[scottspeed]

if it pressure checks ok,i'd be thinking a jamed thermostat. What happens is water wont circulate around engine and ends up boiling itself away. it'll keep taking all the water from the catch bottle as it tries to circulate. If not careful it will need head gaskets soon.

[scooby-wrx]

 scottspeed said:

if it pressure checks ok,i'd be thinking a jamed thermostat. What happens is water wont circulate around engine and ends up boiling itself away. it'll keep taking all the water from the catch bottle as it tries to circulate. If not careful it will need head gaskets soon.

Thanks again for the responses / info.

I'm also leaning towards the thermostat as I'm sure it would run really rough if one of the head gaskets had a small leak. The strange thing is the water seems to be circulating as the fans come on, go off and on ( as they should ) the radiator heats up, the hoses get warm etc etc... I'm dropping it off tomorrow so hopefully can resolve the issues before any major damage!

RAYDEO Appreciate you input. Could be a few things hey... I have a STI radiator cap ( 1.3 bar ) so replaced it with a factory one, but still has the same symptoms.

[Firenza]

I had the exact same issues with my v3 sti. mine turned out to be a warped head due to a blocked radiator. Car ran great, and there was no milky oil that i could see

i tried a teekay test, to no reading. easiest way to discover the fault was a leakdown test. that confirmed the pesence of coolant where it shouldnt be. also i added a catch can for the coolant so i could see just how much was being forced out of the engine.

i ended up getting a second hand engine put in. :-\ good luck, hope its easy to diagnose

[scooby-wrx]

 Firenza said:

I had the exact same issues with my v3 sti. mine turned out to be a warped head due to a blocked radiator. Car ran great, and there was no milky oil that i could see

i tried a teekay test, to no reading. easiest way to discover the fault was a leakdown test. that confirmed the pesence of coolant where it shouldnt be. also i added a catch can for the coolant so i could see just how much was being forced out of the engine.

i ended up getting a second hand engine put in. :-\ good luck, hope its easy to diagnose

Thanks mate, appreciate the info.

I seem to have had cooling issues ever since fitting the alloy radiator, so very possible. Dropping the car off later today.

[Jed]

hey, man what was the result, it sound like the same thing my car is going through at present. cheers

[scooby-wrx]

Hey man, turned out to be very slightly blown head gasket. Only ended up finding out after removing the engine - to swap it with a EJ207 (V7 STI engine). There was a bit of water in the oil when we drained it at my mechanic!

Good luck!

[titian]

As suspected :D

[Stodart]

Anyone who has cooling system issues ie loss of coolant, where there are no obvious external leaks, leaking blocked heater core, etc theres a good chance the radiator is blocked / scaled up , if engine has over headed because of this theres a good chance the heads could be cracked /warped gaskets leaking/blown too.

the reason why this happens is that if the cooling system isn\'t flushed out every 2 years {this is stated in the owners manual} the radiator , heater core clogs up causing overheating, loss of coolant,engine damage as previously mentioned. Flushing cooling system is just as important as oil changes every 5000km

if suspect radiator take out and get it flow tested by a radiator specialist.

also if electical system is bad condition this can electrolyse /degrade the coolant causing scaling / build up in radiator, heater core etc. as well

Had similar issues with an 86 leone where heater core was blocked and leaking , radiator 85% blocked {scaled up} after a flow test, had to be taken apart and rodded out , it also had either cracked heads/leaking head gaskets as it was consuming water internally out exhaust when running at normal temperature so managed to save it with "iron tight " a chemi weld, without having to pull it apart.