Low Coolant....Again!

[DarkOzzy1]

Well today I drove 6 hours to Nashville,TN. I drove on the highway for about 5 1/2 hours of the time, the last 30mins being in the city. Well, heavy traffic, stopping & going didn't help things I'm sure. Anyways my question the coolant reserivor is ALMOST empty and I just got the LIM & new reserivor put on Thursday! I see that there is no coolant leaking anywhere under the hood but I think the resivor may have a leak since it is empty already. Is it safe to fill it up with water until morning and see what happens?

[rixGAphx]

Absolutely, that is what you should do.
fill to the 'Full-Cold' line, being about 1" below the botom of the filler neck.

I do NOT think that a crack in the reservoir is very likely.
It too is under pressure, and it will loose a LOT of liquid if there's any hole.

Since there is no signs of leakage, I would *assume* there's a good chance that the pressure cap itself is leaking (at the rubber sealing washer), and not holding a full 14 psi.
6 hours of continuous driving can force that much water vapor out, leaving you low.

If the cap isn't new (as a part of the LIM gasket job), I would buy a new one at Checker/AutoZone/etc. for about $12 and install it.
Only tighten as much as an average woman can easily do one-handed.
Any tighter and you risk damaging or distorting the delicate rubber sealing washer.

KEEP AN EYE ON THE LEVEL!!
Stop frequently (every 100 miles or so??) for the coolant to cool-off and allow inspection of the level.
If the low-level continues, top it off and keep notes of time/miles/pints to show the repair shop.
At this point, it's 100% in the shop's hands to repair as soon as you can get the car to them.

There's a good chance that your 6-hour trip merely circulated all trapped air out of the engine/rad/heater core.
Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Hope this helps,
-Rick

[tenspeed]

Is it safe to fill it up with water until morning and see what happens?

Since I live in the land of ice, I would use a 50/50 mix of coolent and water. If it is above freezing at night where you are, water should be OK.

[DarkOzzy1]

Well guys my car is in the shop again....I tried to drive it home but when I would speed up while on the interstate the temp. would go up but when I stopped and let it idle it cooled back down quickly. Well, I tried to go on and see if it be OK well after 1 min on interstate driving it overheated so we got off on a exit and about a mile down a city road it died. I heard a knocking sound when I got out of the car, does that mean possibly warped heads or something else?

[nlm612]

i had that problem too...it ended up that the coolant was leaking into my manifold so i took it to the shop and $700 later they replaced the top half of my engine and sealed it up and nothings happened since *knock on wood*

[DarkOzzy1]

Well see problem is I just had the LIM replaced last week! Man..I hope they don't have to replace the top half of my engine. This past month I've already put $1200 into it, it's hard for a person that's going to college.

[DarkOzzy1]

Well..I just got a call back. They said that the radiator cap was bad, and it couldn't hold the pressure causing the car to lose coolant. Is this the same thing as a reservoir cap?

[RazorDX]

I'm not positive on the 99+, but in the 92-98 many (or all) GA models had no radiator cap, but a plastic cap that kept pressure at the proper level on the reservoir.

Yes, that is what Rick was talking about though. If it doesn't keep the system pressurized then it cannot function properly.