Where is my coolant going?

smitdavi · Jun 17, 2016

I'm not leaking any coolant, I'd definitely notice. No white smoke, that I can tell from the tailpipe. But I seem to be adding more coolant to the system as of late. Any thoughts? Also my A/C stopped working, could it be connected? My car is a 95 GT. Has a new aluminum, 3 core, radiator that was installed back in February. Thoughts?

ttocs · Jun 17, 2016

checked/changed your oil lately?

ranger56528 · Jun 18, 2016

Yep this ^^^^^^.... Sounds like a head gasket,not a big leak but enough to slowly pull and burn off the water,I had that happen on a differant car,it didn't smoke, oil looked ok,but it slowly sipped the water and it turned out to be a small head gasket leek.
on a differant note your not smelling antifreeze in the car are you? Or if you have mostly water in the system check and see if the passenger floor is wet or damp,could be the heater core going bad.

smitdavi · Jun 19, 2016

Oil looks good. No moisture in the footwell on the passenger side either. It does smell a little like antifreeze in the cabin.

ttocs · Jun 19, 2016

HEATER CORE! Its probably not bad enough to drip down yet but once you get the dash out you will see it.

smitdavi · Jun 19, 2016

ttocs said:
HEATER CORE! Its probably not bad enough to drip down yet but once you get the dash out you will see it.

How hard, expensive, etc is this to replace? Don't mind doing the work, just trying to gauge how big of a potential weekend project this might be lol.

ranger56528 · Jun 19, 2016

Heater core = No fun in my book,takes time. I would rather replace head gaskets then a heater core BUT you can always do a cooling system pressure test and go from there and then you would know if the core had a leak.

ranger56528 · Jun 19, 2016

You could probably rent a radiator pressure pump and gauge from a auto store that does tool rentals.

DeepList · Jun 19, 2016

smitdavi said:
How hard, expensive, etc is this to replace? Don't mind doing the work, just trying to gauge how big of a potential weekend project this might be lol.

The heater core itself is like $25 or $30. The labor involved to get to it and replace it will take an entire afternoon, especially if you've never done one before... better yet, just set an entire day aside for it.

ttocs · Jun 19, 2016

as they said its just a lot of bolts to take out before you remove the entire dash to get that stupid little part. There are plenty of guides online that detail every bolt that needs to come out and plan on having a buddy there to help with the actual removal and reinstallation