Where's my coolant going?

[Lawrence C Leung]

Alex,

You have the classic signs of a leaking head gasket. A cylinder leakdown
test could find the likely culprit, but either way, you'll have to
install a new head gasket, with any luck, not need to plane either the
head or the block. You haven't recently overheated the car, have you?

LL - NY

On Mon, 22 Jan 2001 13:34:53 -0500 "Alexander van Gerbig"
<Audi_80 at email.msn.com> writes:
>    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
>
>The Audi  80 Pages-----------------
>http://surf.to/the80pages.com
>
>North Ferrisburg, VT 05473
>
>
>