Where's my coolant going?

[Michael Pederson]

You might consider an "Oil Analysis" a la Titan Oil (there are others too)
see, http://www.titanlab.com/

Mike P.

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-admin at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-admin at audifans.com]On
Behalf Of Alexander van Gerbig
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2001 8:35 PM
To: quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Where's my coolant going?


    Now that I have replaced the heater core I still seem to loose coolant,
just as badly as before.  Though sometimes I pop the hood in the morning and
the coolant level is at MIN, other days it's below MIN by enough to trigger
the level sensor when I accelerate hard while cornering.  I longer smell
coolant in the car, so the heater core ain't leaking anymore.  My mechanic
did a pressure test and he said the coolant system lost pressure pretty
quickly, but he didn't see any leaking, anywhere, and for that matter I
don't see coolant leaking anywhere myself.  For the past year or so I've
noticed lots of water dripping from the downpipe / catalytic junction.  It
doesn't smell like coolant when I sniff it.  Lately the car has been making
water evap clouds out the rear for longer than usual, but it is pretty cold
here.  I can go for a 20 mile drive and still have an evap cloud behind me
when I jam on the gas, but it usually goes away after 20 miles or so.  I am
deathly afraid this might be a headgasket problem.  What else could be
happening?  The system loses pressure, no visible leaking or spotting
anywhere, no foamy white stuff in the oil, no oil in the expansion tank, new
heater core, cloud tailpipe for longer than usual, and I think that's it...

TIA!

Alexander van Gerbig -- '88 80

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North Ferrisburg, VT 05473