every day my radiator is low of antifreeze. i have to fill it every day because its always low.. theres never any antifreeze under the car so where the hell is it all goin? from what i can see it looks like theres no leaks. i'm not a car expert so if anyone can tell me where my antifreeze is goin i would be very thankful.

 

Oh man, I hope it isn't this but sometimes it will end up in the oil if you have a blown head gasket (which is OK because it's fixable) OR due to a cracked block or head. The last two are a real pain--you can replace a head easily enough but a cracked block is usually death to the engine

 

in my old thunderbird, coolant was leaking back into the tranny. it really messes up the tranny. check your tranny fluid first.

 

would i be able to check through the oil and tranny fluid. if yes what am i lookin for?

 

Oil will look milky.

Not sure about the tranny fluid but I assume it would do the same.

 

i forgot to ask this... if the block was cracked wouldnt i be able to notice it leaking onto my driveway or wherever i park? every where i park its spotless.. it doesnt leak at all.

 

No, because the leak will be internal, like between a cooling passage and an oil passage. It won't end up on the ground but rather in the oil pan

Same with a head leak or gasket. You'd notice a bad running engine with the latter two, however.

 

bad running engine as in hesitation? because it hesitates alot now..

 

the tranny fluid will look foamy, and discolored some. if it is a cracked block, it might be a smaller enough crack and in the right spot so it would only leak when the coolant system is under pressure(ie. when you are driving) so coolant might not leak out when your car is just sitting.

 

Well, I had a head gasket let go on me in Tuscon one day. The engine started to miss like crazy and white smoke came out the tailpipe. That was the antifreeze turning to steam on the way through the combustion chamber!

But pull out your dipstick (the one in the car) and see if the oil looks like hot chocolate. If so, that's the problem.

 

i already tried testing that by filling up the radiator at night and by morning it was low again.... is there a possibility of a bad radiator cap?

 

lol.... i'm gunna check the fluids first thing tomorow morning

 

Yes, it could be the cap. But you would notice the engine boiling over through the reservoir if that were the case.

 

yea it does boil over through the reservoir! ...... i'm buyin a new cap tommorow and we'll see what happens... lol

 

If your other "oil" looks like hot chocolate, you got a problem there, too

 

lol :sillylol: if that was the case i wouldnt be hear right now.. i'd be in the emergency room

 

Well, that is probably the problem. Just happened to me a couple weeks ago. Only $5 for cap, thankfully

 

5$ for a cap beats the hell out of buyin gallons of antifreeze

 

Beats the heck out of a new engine block, too

 

hell yea.. although a new engine would be nice

 

ok i bought a new cap today but it seems like it doesnt fit on right... i looked up the part number and got the one that should fit my car but when i got home it seemed like it didnt fit right. are they suppposed to be a little loose or are they suppposed to be tight. ill find out tommorow if it worked and if my car still has antifreeze in it.

 

Mine fit quite properly, it wasn't loose.

 

When you refill the radiator on the Camaro, it does not fill the whole system. For example it does no go up into the upper hose because that is higher than the filler cap.

The rest of the filling action occurs after the engine heats up and cools down again a fw times. What happens is the air gets blown into the header tank as the engine heats up. When it cools down again the vacuum suck coolant from the header tank. This keeps happening until the cooling system is fully primed.

For this to work properly, you must have the correct radiator cap and it has to be working properly. It has two spring loaded valves in the cap. One opens to let the air and excess pressure coolant out of the radiator. Th other small one opens when the radiator pulls a vacuum and it allows coolant from the header tank into the radiator.

After a total engine rebuild, you may have to refill the coolant header tank several times before it stops going low.

This does not mean you don't have a leak, but it is the cheapest thing to fix if it is the problem. The cap should be a tight fit, and probably more than $5.