Losing Coolant

Hi,

I have a 2016 Sport with 111K miles and recently I started losing cooling. It is not in the oil so it is not a blown head gasket.

In July I was driving and the overtemp warning light came on and I looked at the gauge and it was very high. I stopped and checked the engine compartment and noticed that the reservoir bottle was empty so I got the correct antifreeze and filled the reservoir to the correct level.

Fat forward to the beginning of November and it happened all over again exactly the same. Filled the bottle and the problem stopped.

I have no sign of any fluid in the garage on the floor and when I looked in the engine compartment I did not see any evidence of leaks.

Has anyone else had this issue yet ?

I suppose it could be the radiator or a hose or the water pump but I cannot be sure. Trying to see if there is any history out there ?

 

Pray the coolant isn’t in your transmission. This is why you should run a separate transmission cooler away from the one in the radiator and...

 

Inspect the crossover tube on the back of the motor. Do u ever smell antifreeze?

 

This. Drips on hot engine and you never see it on the ground.

 

Hopefully he still smells it and has no strawberry milk

 

This is the type of post that makes me go outside and check my coolant level and leaks, behind the engine, hoses and all.

Lucky me I always come out negative and I'm at 50k on my '16.

I suppose I should be thankful, else I may never open my hood except at service time.

Best of luck OP, keep us posted

 

Which is one reason folks don't head off problems early on.

I've had beaters that needed a daily look over ( ), to more healthy, but older vintages, that still needed to be checked weekly or biweekly.

Even a modern low maintenance vehicle deserves to be looked over once a month.

 

A head gasket can blow between combustion and coolant chambers and not get into the oil. I hope this is not the case but just wanted to point that out.
Check that crossover tube in the back as suggested.

 

Losing that much coolant enough to drain the reservoir is very concerning...I would drain the oil and see what it looks like. If that much coolant is mixing with it you'll know right away I imagine. Hopefully it's just leaking somewhere and burning off like mentioned earlier

 

Toyota's more often than not do not mix oil & water with a bad head gasket. Strange but true. Look for a wet plug for a cracked head if you have to keep looking. Unfortunately, they're known for that too.

 

no sign of coolant on the ground, no sign of coolant in the oil, no sign of coolant in engine bay, no smell coolant coming from the truck, relax OP alls well

 

I doubt this is your issue. But mine is leaking out of the coolant reservoir cap. I only have 12k miles.

 

Well I checked again today and I also think it might be the reservoir cap as well. It looked wet on the outside.

 

Just pull your plugs...if one of them is brand new looking and super clean then you definitely have a head gasket leak. Basically it steam cleans your cylinder over time

 

Do you have any white smoke coming from your tail pipe? That would indicate burning coolant.

Also if coolant is coming out of your reservoir cap the reservoir may just be over serviced. I cant see a reason for coolant to be coming out of there for any other reason.

 

Wouldn't the coolant boil out of the oil?

 

no

 

I used to be like that (checking constantly under the hood for problems) but after many years of driving TOYOTA vehicles, what can I say, I'm spoiled, they just don't leak, squeak, break or leave me stranded.

But I've been there, done that, and hope not to rinse repeat lol!

Cheers!

 

it looks as if you have an overfilled radiator, your about 1/4" over the fill line on the resvoir I would assume someone overfilled the system and excess coolant escaped thru the caps seal

 

It could also be a combustion leak into the cooling system. Exhaust gasses leak into the cooling system and displace coolant into the reservoir until the tank overflows.