Help - Radiator Coolant Problem

[pinoy]

I have a problem with my 91 Celica GTS.

I already changed the thermostat and flashed the coolant. The temperature gauge is less than the middle but water goes out of the overflow bottle. I did some search on this forum and they say that there are trapped air in the cooling system. As suggested I drove the vehicle with heater in max. After the drive, no water goes out of the bottle and everything seems to be ok. But when I drive without the heater in max, water again goes out from the bottle. How long do I have to drive with the heater in max. Is this just a case of trapped air or a radiator problem or a blown head gasket. I have brought it to 2 shops and it hasn't been fixed. Do you know of any shop which deals with this kind of problem.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[dpar1092]

I had a similar problem with my 88 3sfe. Seems the radiator is lower than the head so when you fill it at the radiotor, there can be air in the head which heats up and expands when driving, thus pushing coolant into the overflow reservoir.

To fix this, simply jack up the front of the car ( or put it on a hill) so the radiator filler is higher than the head, then run the car with the radiator cap loose or off. Air trapped in the head will eventually find it's way out the filler. I had to run the car for close to an hour this way to make sure it had vacated, but once I did it, I was able to drop the car down, refill the coolant to specified levels, replace the cap and forget about it.

Hope that helps

[onephatcracka]

1. open radiator cap (when car is cold)
2. start car and turn heater to max
3. have a bottle of coolent (50/50 or w/e you use) ready to fill
4. watch the level and wait till it get sucked in
5. start pouring when this happens to it draws the collent into the system.
6. keep doing this till the coolent is up to temp and there is no fluctutations in the level of the liguid.


keep in mind to get the air bubbles out, you will lose a good bit of coolent (depending on how big the air pocket is). So keep extra stuff around incase you run out.

just an FYI...... always fill the radiator itself first... then fill the resevior. if you look how small the hose is and how it is positioned there will not be alot of coolent returning to the radiator if not any. It is just a resevior ... thats all it is.

the reason i say this is because my brother never checked his radiator and he blew and warped his heads on his 3.0 v6 tbird.

[Pineapple]

Rad is plugged, time for new one. I had that for 6 months and a new rad fixed it. Not before I overheated the engine