Coolant Problem - 1996 Camry - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

absolutemagic · 10-18-2009, 04:23 PM

Hi, I have a 1996 Camry DX, 4 cylinder, just hit 125,000 miles.

For the past few days I have been having problems with my coolant levels. I opened the radiator cap the other day and it looked low, so I added more coolant. But today when I opened it, the coolant level was low again. I could see the inside (the part with holes). So I added more 50/50 coolant. I also poured out all the liquid from my reservoir tank and refilled it to just below the "FULL" line with fresh new coolant. I don't see any leaks anywhere and looked under the car and there are no leaks. The hoses look fine and don't have any holes or wet spots. I just had my radiator replaced last year. I went to this site, http://www.autotropolis.com/wiki/ind...t_but_no_leaks, and followed it, but everything else seems fine.

So I'm wondering what could be wrong with my car? If anything, I would like some DIY help, cause I don't want to pay hundreds to thousands to fix it. Also, my radiator cap seems to be rusted on the underside, is that a problem? Also, when I am idling my car, it gets really loud (the fans I think), and I been smelling coolant the past two days when that happens.

whip_cracker · 10-18-2009, 06:29 PM

Ok... first off:

- Make sure there's coolant to the FULL line in the overflow bottle when the engine's cold.
- Make sure the filler cap has coolant to the top at the radiator (I don't think 5SFEs have the good ol' filler cap above the engine do they?).
- Run the car with the cap off and watch the coolant level. If it starts to drop - add more coolant in there. It'll bubble and all that - don't put the cap on until ALL bubbles are gone, and I mean ALL bubbles. This can take up to half an hour of idling before they disappear.

In regards to the rad cap - replace it. If it's damaged at all, then the pressure release valve on the cap might not be doing it's job properly or at all. A typical example would be coolant pissin out of the overflow bottle when the car's at operating temp.

See how ya go with that one mate.

msrdude · 10-20-2009, 12:07 AM

Did you just flush/replace your coolant recently or not?
I had this problem on my 96 corolla dx. It was because the coolant in the radiator was yellow meaning it was 80% water and 20% ethanol glycol instead of 50/50. Water evaporates quicker and makes the level low. Check your car in the morning. Take a turkey baster, open you radiator cap (the one that says not to open when hot) and squeeze out some coolant and check the color. If its yellow or really light green or red, there you go. If not, then wow i do not know what to say. There is no leak, the hoses are fine, there cannot be anything else, i think. If you do not have a turkey baster, smell the coolant in the radiator. If it smells like clay or close to clay, its bad. Or just flush the coolant entirely from radiator and resirvior, clean the radiator and resirvior with garden hose, and add new coolant.

absolutemagic · 10-20-2009, 12:29 AM

Thanks whip_cracker and msrdude, I will try those out and see how it goes tomorrow.

haux · 10-20-2009, 02:07 AM

You first mentioned that you opened the radiator cap and noticed the coolant wasn't topped off. I'm wondering, at that point, what was the level of the reservoir (overflow bottle)? Was it full, or was it empty?

If the coolant level in the radiator is low, but the reservoir tank is full, that tells me there may be a pressure issue, unless I'm mistaken. If I'm right, it could be as simple as a bad radiator cap. I've experienced a bad radiator cap before, and the symptoms were similar.

If you replace your radiator cap, do not purchase one from Pep Boys! The ones with red and white labels on top. They're made in China and total crap. One fell apart on me after three months. AutoZone's are made in Israel, but I can't confirm how long those will last. Pep Boy's was $10, AutoZone's was $9. One from a Toyota dealer is $16. I'd recommend going to the dealer for it, as it's fairly inexpensive.

Another question. When you smell coolant, have you been running your car for a while? Or does it happen shortly after warming up?

msrdude · 10-20-2009, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by haux

You first mentioned that you opened the radiator cap and noticed the coolant wasn't topped off. I'm wondering, at that point, what was the level of the reservoir (overflow bottle)? Was it full, or was it empty?

If the coolant level in the radiator is low, but the reservoir tank is full, that tells me there may be a pressure issue, unless I'm mistaken. If I'm right, it could be as simple as a bad radiator cap. I've experienced a bad radiator cap before, and the symptoms were similar.

If you replace your radiator cap, do not purchase one from Pep Boys! The ones with red and white labels on top. They're made in China and total crap. One fell apart on me after three months. AutoZone's are made in Israel, but I can't confirm how long those will last. Pep Boy's was $10, AutoZone's was $9. One from a Toyota dealer is $16. I'd recommend going to the dealer for it, as it's fairly inexpensive.

Another question. When you smell coolant, have you been running your car for a while? Or does it happen shortly after warming up?

When the coolant color changes, it starts breaking down and thus making the smell. It starts out smelling bad after you drive, but after a while it will smell no matter if the car is cold or warm.

haux · 10-20-2009, 02:19 PM

I used to smell coolant sometimes when my car had a bad radiator cap and was overheating. The engine would dump coolant back into the reservoir and it would boil over and spill out. The overheating wasn't enough to raise the temp gauge, however, so it was difficult to notice... except for the smell.

absolutemagic · 10-20-2009, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by haux

You first mentioned that you opened the radiator cap and noticed the coolant wasn't topped off. I'm wondering, at that point, what was the level of the reservoir (overflow bottle)? Was it full, or was it empty?

If the coolant level in the radiator is low, but the reservoir tank is full, that tells me there may be a pressure issue, unless I'm mistaken. If I'm right, it could be as simple as a bad radiator cap. I've experienced a bad radiator cap before, and the symptoms were similar.

If you replace your radiator cap, do not purchase one from Pep Boys! The ones with red and white labels on top. They're made in China and total crap. One fell apart on me after three months. AutoZone's are made in Israel, but I can't confirm how long those will last. Pep Boy's was $10, AutoZone's was $9. One from a Toyota dealer is $16. I'd recommend going to the dealer for it, as it's fairly inexpensive.

Another question. When you smell coolant, have you been running your car for a while? Or does it happen shortly after warming up?

When the coolant wasn't topped off, The reserve tank was full. The coolant I used was green 50/50 Prestone. But in the reserve tank it was clear (like water).

I hope it's just a bad radiator cap, cause that would be a quick and easy fix. Unfortunately there are no pep boy's or auto zone nearby, only kragens here. Do you guys know if any radiator cap from kragens is good? If not, I'll just get the one from my toyota dealer, hope they have it.

I smelled the coolant through my vents after driving for a while (car warmed up), but only when I was idling the car waiting and it started getting loud (ie the fans turning on). But when I start driving again, the smell goes away.

I'm about to go try and bubbling out the coolant and see how it goes. I haven't driven for a day so my car is cold. Maybe I need to flush my coolant as well. Does anyone know how to do that (DIY please)? And how much coolant I need to add when it's drained out?

***BMR*** · 10-20-2009, 03:42 PM

If you're smelling coolant from the air vents, it's possible the heater core is leaking. But like whipcracker said, replace the questionable radiator cap first and see if that fixes the problem. When the fans kick on it means the cooling system is hot, the pressure is high, and it could be puking some coolant out the leaky cap.

If you just had your radiator replaced a year ago, chances are it got a coolant replacement at the same time. Draining and replacing the coolant again wouldn't fix anything.

absolutemagic · 10-20-2009, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMR

If you're smelling coolant from the air vents, it's possible the heater core is leaking. But like whipcracker said, replace the questionable radiator cap first and see if that fixes the problem. When the fans kick on it means the cooling system is hot, the pressure is high, and it could be puking some coolant out the leaky cap.

If you just had your radiator replaced a year ago, chances are it got a coolant replacement at the same time. Draining and replacing the coolant again wouldn't fix anything.

Thanks. Yea, I'm looking for a new radiator cap now. Should I just get the OEM one? I see a bunch on ebay, authentic from toyota dealers. On the posting it says:

"Description: Factory Toyota OEM Radiator Cap Brand New in factory packaging. Overheating is a symptom of radiator cap failure, amoung other causes. The typical lifespan on a radiator cap is between 80,000 and 120,000 miles but can vary."

My car is just hit 125,000, so I'm hoping that is the (only) problem.

haux · 10-20-2009, 03:49 PM

I'd bet that it was the cap, and that's the cheapest place to start.

Also, there's no harm in flushing out the coolant too. I'm not sure what year your car is and if the setup of this varies from year to year, but in my 2000 camry, there is a sort of... butterfly shaped knob (I'm sure there's a name for it but I have no idea) at the very bottom inside part of the radiator, below the fans. All you do is unscrew it, and the coolant will drain from the spigot below it. Be sure to set a pan under there so it doesn't make too much of a mess. You may also want to fit a rubber hose over the spigot so the coolant doesn't flow down the metal parts underneath. My car takes about a gallon of coolant. So a half gallon of distilled water to a half gallon of coolant or just use a full gallon of the 50/50.

The fact that the reservoir was full while the radiator was losing coolant tells me that there is no/low pressure, and therefore it was unable to suck any coolant from the reservoir. Poor pressure leads to poor coolant circulation which leads to overheating, and burning up coolant.

Quote:

Originally Posted by absolutemagic

When the coolant wasn't topped off, The reserve tank was full. The coolant I used was green 50/50 Prestone. But in the reserve tank it was clear (like water).

I hope it's just a bad radiator cap, cause that would be a quick and easy fix. Unfortunately there are no pep boy's or auto zone nearby, only kragens here. Do you guys know if any radiator cap from kragens is good? If not, I'll just get the one from my toyota dealer, hope they have it.

I smelled the coolant through my vents after driving for a while (car warmed up), but only when I was idling the car waiting and it started getting loud (ie the fans turning on). But when I start driving again, the smell goes away.

I'm about to go try and bubbling out the coolant and see how it goes. I haven't driven for a day so my car is cold. Maybe I need to flush my coolant as well. Does anyone know how to do that (DIY please)? And how much coolant I need to add when it's drained out?

whip_cracker · 10-20-2009, 06:32 PM

After looking at this...

1 - Replace the radiator cap and any other cap for the cooling system. They're the lifeline of the cooling system. It's not "just a cap" - it keeps the pressure in there to stop it boiling over and loosing coolant. Such a huge job for such a small part.
2 - Flush the coolant system. Go to TOYOTA (yes, the real thing) and get their Long Life Coolant concentrate. They have a 50/50 mix of the good ol' Red stuff. Get a 4L (dunno how gallons and stuff work for you lads) bottle of distilled water and mix them up in 1L bottles at 50/50.

Follow the procedure that I said before... just drop the old shit out, refill with a couple of tanks of water in the cooling system to flush the old shit out and do it with the proper stuff after.

absolutemagic · 10-20-2009, 07:15 PM

Earlier when my car was cold I checked the coolant level in the reservoir and it was a little below the full line (maybe about 1/2 inch to an inch at most). When I opened the radiator cap it was fine, I saw the coolant in there, no leaks anywhere. After I drove to the dealership and back (about 7 miles total), I checked it again. This time the reservoir had coolant above the full line, and I could hear the hose(that goes to the engine) sucking coolant.

So when my car cools down, tonight or tomorrow morning, I will switch the radiator caps. If this does not solve the problem I will have my coolant flushed and replaced with new coolant. Hopefully, I will have this problem fixed by tomorrow. I'll let you guys know what happens then.

haux · 10-20-2009, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whip_cracker

After looking at this...
2 - Flush the coolant system. Go to TOYOTA (yes, the real thing) and get their Long Life Coolant concentrate. They have a 50/50 mix of the good ol' Red stuff. Get a 4L (dunno how gallons and stuff work for you lads) bottle of distilled water and mix them up in 1L bottles at 50/50.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been in the process of flushing out my coolant system with water, in preparation of switching over to red coolant. First flush... I drained the coolant and replaced it with distilled water. Second flush... I drained the water and it was very much still yellow with old coolant in it. Today, I replaced the water for a third time, and it still had a tint of yellow in there. Several days pass between each flush, and it is still not completely clean. I will continue doing this until the water is completely clear and does not smell of antifreeze. When this happens, I will do a last flush with maybe 25% red coolant and 75% water... flush that out and put in the final 50/50. Since I've heard bad things about yellow and red coolant mixing, I'd wanna make sure every last bit of the old antifreeze was gone. So I think the process of changing over to red would take a bit longer than single flush to make sure the yellow stuff was gone.

(This would have been safer to do during the summer, as any sudden freezing temperatures would put it to an end.)

***dz63*** · 10-20-2009, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by haux

For the last couple of weeks, I've been in the process of flushing out my coolant system with water, in preparation of switching over to red coolant. First flush... I drained the coolant and replaced it with distilled water. Second flush... I drained the water and it was very much still yellow with old coolant in it. Today, I replaced the water for a third time, and it still had a tint of yellow in there. Several days pass between each flush, and it is still not completely clean. I will continue doing this until the water is completely clear and does not smell of antifreeze. When this happens, I will do a last flush with maybe 25% red coolant and 75% water... flush that out and put in the final 50/50. Since I've heard bad things about yellow and red coolant mixing, I'd wanna make sure every last bit of the old antifreeze was gone. So I think the process of changing over to red would take a bit longer than single flush to make sure the yellow stuff was gone.

(This would have been safer to do during the summer, as any sudden freezing temperatures would put it to an end.)

Putting 50/50 coolant in after flushing the cooling system with distilled water will leave you with too weak a concentration of coolant. It is my experience that putting 100% concentrate in after flushing my cooling system three times with distilled water only got me a freeze point of -10F. Not good enough for our winters up here in Ontario. I had to drain the radiator a second time and fill with concentrate one more time in order to achieve a freeze point of -45F. I am not sure how much coolant remains in the engine/hoses/heater core after draining the radiator, but I think it must be more than 1/2 the volume of the total cooling system.

I guess it depends on where you are located and what freeze point you require, but I can pretty well guarantee that filling with 50/50 after flushing with distilled will leave you with too weak a coolant concentration.