nelliott500
Well-Known LVC Member
I have a mysterious cooling system issue right now. Drove my wife to the airport yesterday, on the way home I get "Check engine temp" and it was showing hot. Pulled over with the car off, popped the hood, flecks of coolant on a lot of stuff at the front of the engine bay. So, I let it cool off for a little while and continued to drive home since I was only a mile away. Turned the car off at red lights to keep the temp down.
Did some investigating today... can't seem to find any leak. The upper radiator hose was replaced less than two months ago. I refilled the system and let the car run for a while, fan kicked on, everything seems fine. I couldn't seem to get any hot air out of the HVAC system until I drove it 1/4 mile down the road. Then, when it was on 90*, it was very hot.
Rented a pressure tester from Advance Auto. If I try to pressurize at the degas bottle, I get nothing. You can hear air just leak out when pressurizing. It won't hold any pressure at all. Sounds like the air is leaking right at the fill hole. I can't pinpoint this being an issue with the degas bottle or the pressure tester. Could be the seal on the part you screw on to the bottle but it looks basically brand new.
Then I pressurized the system to 16 psi at the engine fill neck. Pressurized just fine but seems to have a very slow leak. Took a few minutes per psi but it eventually dropped to 14 or less before I got sick of standing there watching it. Still can't see anything leaking while pressurized.
Couldn't test the cap at the engine fill neck. Apparently the kit doesn't have the right size tester.
What's my next course of action? I'm wondering if something happened and coolant poured out of the overflow ports in the fill neck. Maybe the seal on the cap is worn out (looks okay to me but that doesn't mean anything)?
Did some investigating today... can't seem to find any leak. The upper radiator hose was replaced less than two months ago. I refilled the system and let the car run for a while, fan kicked on, everything seems fine. I couldn't seem to get any hot air out of the HVAC system until I drove it 1/4 mile down the road. Then, when it was on 90*, it was very hot.
Rented a pressure tester from Advance Auto. If I try to pressurize at the degas bottle, I get nothing. You can hear air just leak out when pressurizing. It won't hold any pressure at all. Sounds like the air is leaking right at the fill hole. I can't pinpoint this being an issue with the degas bottle or the pressure tester. Could be the seal on the part you screw on to the bottle but it looks basically brand new.
Then I pressurized the system to 16 psi at the engine fill neck. Pressurized just fine but seems to have a very slow leak. Took a few minutes per psi but it eventually dropped to 14 or less before I got sick of standing there watching it. Still can't see anything leaking while pressurized.
Couldn't test the cap at the engine fill neck. Apparently the kit doesn't have the right size tester.
What's my next course of action? I'm wondering if something happened and coolant poured out of the overflow ports in the fill neck. Maybe the seal on the cap is worn out (looks okay to me but that doesn't mean anything)?