My girlfriend borrowed my Grand Prix to go back to school with while I fixed her Probe this week. Its a 3 1/2 hour drive, and halfway through it the "Low Coolant" light came on for a minute or two, turned off, and did not re-appear again. When she got home the popped the hood and sure enough, the overflow was well below the "Full Cold" mark despite being hot. She claims to have added about 2/3 of a juice bottle full of 50/50 coolant/water mix to it, which brought it a little over the "Full Hot."

The question is this...I've owned this car for 13 months and put 22k of the 44k on it. I pay zero attention to it besides wash, wax and Mobil 1 every 4k. I am an idiot and have NEVER checked the coolant level. Is it possible during the 4 years and 44k miles this car has been on the road that some of the coolant has dissipated through normal heat cycles? All of my other cars have always been older and lost coolant through leaks...she doesn't see any leaks, there are no traces of coolant in the oil (gotta love a girl who can figure that out ), and the temp gague is fine.

She's bringing the car back down tomorrow and I'll keep an eye on it...I'm just wondering, do I have a problem here or is the idea of evaporation entirely possible, or even common? Thanks in advance...I know this is not a 3800 board but hell, its a general question

 

yes it is possible, my saturn did the same thing to me. All of a suddon the light comes on, for no reason. Yeah add some stuff liek she did and keep driving the **** out of since it's a daily.

chris

 

All composite gaskets leak a tiny minute amount. They're designed to leak. If they didnt leak, they would not stay very moist and flexible, and would not serve their purpose as a gasket very well. That being said, between heat, and tiny unnoticable leaks, its not unheard of for a car to lose a small amount of coolant over time.

 

I wouldn't rule out evaporation here. After 44 thousand miles some of that is bound to happen.

 

Another possibility is a pinhole leak in a coolant hose. On a 3.5 hour drive with the engine runing at 195F or so and the system under pressure, it can push a little coolant out thru a hole you couldn't normally find. If most driving is short trips around town, this often isn't enough to notice.

Many shops can pressurize your cooling system and find almost any tiny leak with their equipment.

Or you could just add more coolant every so often.

 

Thanks for the replies...its good to know I'm not nuts for thinking this is entirely common. The reason I was/am a little neurotic is because she needs to drive it back 3.5 hours tomorrow, and I don't want her breaking down somewhere. Also, I don't need a big $$$$ repair on a car I still owe almost 7 grand on!!! For the last 3 months, the car has barely been on a ride longer than an hour...I think you might be onto something.

I appreciate everyone's help...this is the only board I've seen on the net I can get 4 decent responses in a few hours!

 

Yeah, many of us here think we know-it-all.