I finally found out where my slow coolant loss was going. Last night I smelled coolant when I stopped to reload my cabin with newspapers. I grabbed my 600 lumen flashlight and crawled under the front of it. I saw a tiny bit of coolant on the bottom of the right radiator tank and the radiator is 200K old, so I figured it was time for a replacement anyway.

After getting the fan shroud off, I saw corrosion on the extreme 4 corners of the radiator where the tubes are welded into the tank flanges. One of them was wet, but it was obvious all 4 had been seeping for a while. Apparently they were leaking slowly enough that the coolant was evaporating before it ran down the core. It was only when they got bad enough to show up as wet spots on the bottom that I saw the leaks.

 

Good info. I find I'm adding coolant from time to time and one of these days I'll be checking that out. You have a right and left radiator tank?

 

Yes, single row crossflow. I got a replacement locally at Leland. My mechanic calls them "the dog eaters" because they're Asian. $121.88.

 

oh ok the left and right side tanks. gotcha.

 

I must have something similar going on with mine. Every now and then I get a wiff of coolant but no obvious leaks. I crawled under and saw the bottom of the radiator looked wet but haven't gone much farther than that. Hoping she holds until spring time.

 

Here is one for the book. I started experiencing unexplained coolant loss in my Chevy truck. Eventually, I found out that when I changed out the radiator I failed to fully tighten the band clamp on the top heater hose to the heater core. The coolant was seeping under the hose and back through the firewall and under the vinyl flooring. I didn't notice it for months. I finally found coolant pooling on the driveway in the area under the passenger side door, which I followed back under the vinyl to the firewall. Perhaps, if I had carpet I may have found it sooner.

 

Sneaky slow leak eh?
Thanks for the heads up, will watch for same!
I love to find the broken stuff, at least you then know what to fix.