Coolant Disappearing....?!

I bought a 05' DC TRD a couple of weeks ago. Just recently noticed the Coolant level was around "LOW" so I bought some coolant (Prestone-was in a rush) and filled it up yesterday. Drove it about 4 miles today and its already below "LOW" again.....????

The strange thing is there are no visible leaks that I can see. There is a hose plug seen below where it may be leaking but not that much.



Will fill back up in AM to try and make it home Nashville (about 145 miles)

Any ideas or suggestions feel free. Will take back to dealer to try and get this worked out on Friday.

Thanks,

Dirt

 

Interesting. How are your temps?

 

Did you pull the radiator cap and take a look?

 

In that photo I see a tad bit of the pink factory coolant at the bottom with the cheap Prestone green stuff on top. I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to mix the two.

 

Temps were fine, no overheating... thus far..

Just pulled the radiator cap... Looks like there is fluid in the radiator about 1inch from cap.

See below...

You think maybe the fluid was recently flushed and now I'm having to add extra now that it's circulating through engine?

Thanks guys keep up the ideas.

 

OP, Do you smell coolant after you drive for a while? Park it in a garage and close door. If you smell it then there is a leak, I had 2 water pumps go on me in 5 years. There is a "weap" hole on the bottom of the waterpump, when that starts to leak you are in the need of a new pump. Ant questions just ask me, I have been down that road

 

Not sure if he Prestone is bad for the truck but I was always told to use the pink Toyota OEM fluids.

 

I also had to replace my radiator 3 or 4 months ago because of a small hairline crack in the plastic upper tank. That was around $150.00

 

That's what Chris4x4 told me also. But at the time I did mine, the funds weren't there so I used all green. And my truck hasn't exploded. (YET)

 

This is kind of an obvious question but... Does your truck blow white smoke when the engine is running?

Also what Monkeysuncle said is correct. When the bearing in the water pump starts to go bad, there is a hole where coolant can escape. Although you should be able to see the leak and little drops of coolant on the ground after idling at for awhile.

Try idling in your driveway or a parking lot at normal operating temp for 5 minutes and see if you can spot any coolant on the ground.

 

I don't think you'll hurt anything by mixing the prestone with OE coolant. Just know that you don't have 100,000 mile coolant anymore and should change back to the Toyota stuff next time you drain the system.

The radiator is supposed to draw coolant from the overflow bottle when the engine cools. With the truck cold, fill the actual radiator to the top, then fill the coolant midway between add and full. Drive the truck and recheck the next day to see that the radiator itself is full to the top. Then mark the coolant reservoir and see if it continues to drop. If it does, you have a leak. If not, it is normal to have coolant disappear at a VERY slow rate. Like, over five years of driving, using an overflow tank of coolant would not get me excited.

I have an 09 and an 06 that both leak at the coolant overflow hose on top of the overflow tank. Haven't fixed it yet. Someone posted on here that there is a casting ridge under that hose and that is why it leaks. It can be smoothed out with a razor blade. I will try that eventually. The 09 has lost a half a tank of coolant in 50K miles. It's a company truck, and I am required to take it to Jiffy Lube. Those guys have yet to top it off for me, so it's possible your's has had the same kind of history.

 

This is entirely possible if the system was recently drained and filled.

Had a family member call me from Las Vegas to report that their Jeep was running at nearly 250F coolant temp and they had been driving that way with the heater on for hours. They limped it an additional 100 miles before getting it into a shop. After the problem was fixed (radiator), they continued their trip and called again the next day to report that the coolant was low. I was very concerned about the headgasket at that point, but told them to top it off and check it again when they got home. They drove it another year before trading it in, no further overheating, and no more using coolant.

 

Is the level in the radiator low when the truck it totally cooled down? if it is low when cool then its just drawing coolant from the reservoir, if the level in both are topped off and its going down you definitely got a leak somewhere. If you dont see leak marks on the engine then it could be a serious problem internally with it leaking into the engine, did you check your oil level and see what color the oil is?

 

i highly doubt it would be a head gasket problem, but check your oil to see if it looks like chocolate milk.

 

Picture of Level of Coolant as of this morning... looks like it went down a little bit more.

Picture of Radiator cap/w/ coolant under, maybe from taking cap off.

Picture 3 of oil check.... does that look like chocolate milk?? Can't guage how clean it's suppose to be. It looks fairly clean on the dipstick.

Help on options:

A: Take back to dealer in Nashville where i bought and say WTF? (problem is that I have to drive it to get there 145 miles)

B: Take to dealer here and see what they say....

Thanks guys, this is frustrating since the reason I got this Taco is b/c my radiator blew on my 98 4Runner w/ 225,000 miles on it a few weeks ago.

 

I'm having the same problem. My brother said that it could be that after the truck warms up and it circulates that the coolant will fill back up. Not sure...??? I havent checked it out yet

 

Change your dirty oil. Then drive the truck hard for 30 minutes. Idle it for 10 minutes. Raise the hood. Look for steam. Get under the truck. Look for puddles and inspect hose fittings. Check the oil again for suds.

 

Seeing you bought it from a dealer, I'd call them up and see what they have to say...hopefully they'll fix it for you.

 

Pull the skidplate(s) off and have a look see from underneath - water pumps leaking are a fairly common problem with the 4.0 - if you'd stuck with the factory coolant and it's leaking, you'll see a dried pink trail that you cant see from the top of the engine.

Mine slowly lost coolant until I had it replaced at 59,000 miles. That's my guess, hope it helps.