New Lanos Coolant Behaviour

[ChrisHarding]

Hi Guys
My Lanos is still giving me uphill with the cooling system losing coolant. Here is what happened today!!

(1) From cold the coolant level was about two inches below the seam so I topped it up exactly to the seam of the surge tank and no higher.
(2) Went to Chicken Treat about 3kms away and got the temp gauge up to just below the halfway mark and drove home into the driveway and with the motor running I lifted the bonnet.
(3) The coolant had risen right to the top of the surge tank so there was no air space at all so if I had gone a bit further, the coolant surely would have come out thru the cap valve.
(4) I turned off the motor and the coolant level in the surge tank remained full to the brim although none had escaped as yet.
(5) After about 5 minutes the coolant level dropped down to around 1" above the tank seam and it has stayed there for the last 15 minutes...but still a good 1" higher level than when it
was cold!!!

With the motor running the hoses seem to have pressure and you can pinch them above halfway against the flow...they are soft now when the motor has started to cool down.

Surely this is not normal operation??????

UPDATE: I put a new surge cap on the tank (marked 17psi) and it does help the problem, However the coolant level is still higher than what I filled it to!! Hoses are a lot harder to pinch too so the system is better pressurised I guess. On a run of about 100kms I STILL find the coolant level has dropped about 1" but there is absolutely no sign of any coolant leaks under the car or in the sump ...hot or cold!!!!

Chris

[mrwoo105]

Simple. Water expands when its heated. As does antifreeze. Just remove some coolant in the resevoir until its at the full "cold mark" not the full "hot mark". An I bet when the engine is up to operating temp. It will be at the full hot mark. Hope it helps. Happy tuning.

[MMamdouh]

most probably you have a bad reservoir cap

MMamdouh

[ChrisHarding]

Thanks!! Indeed it was a bad cap!! It's sorta back to normal now but I wanted to ask just one question???

Have anyone ever witnessed the rad fan actually kicking in????? I know mine work cos if you pull the plug on the sensor both come in a high speed!! I can have the car sitting in the driveway for 15 minutes on a hot day and the fans never kick in even at low speed!!! I know they are supposed to come in at 92 but even on our 40 degree days I have never seen them kick in and the temp gauge also never rises to just below half
even with the car sitting stationary for 15 minutes!!! Seems strange????

Chris

[Daniel]

Thanks!! Indeed it was a bad cap!! It's sorta back to normal now but I wanted to ask just one question???

Have anyone ever witnessed the rad fan actually kicking in????? I know mine work cos if you pull the plug on the sensor both come in a high speed!! I can have the car sitting in the driveway for 15 minutes on a hot day and the fans never kick in even at low speed!!! I know they are supposed to come in at 92 but even on our 40 degree days I have never seen them kick in and the temp gauge also never rises to just below half
even with the car sitting stationary for 15 minutes!!! Seems strange????

Chris

Not strange.
The cooling system is very efficient on our Daewoo. On very hot days with A/C ON and thus fans at low speed they switched from low to high speed very rarely even sitting in traffic.
Your best indicator is the temperature gauge. Just below half way it's OK.

[MMamdouh]

well... this will only be strange if you fans didn't kick in and the temp gauge went past the half mark and headed to the red zone

i don't know why on your car the fans don't kick in... maybe your local weather is not that hot to force the fans to work... my fans kick in after 10 to 15 minutes of idle and our weather is a bit hot (summer time is within mid to high 30s C)

also my fans don't kick in at high speed unless i was torturing the engine and then immediately turn it off for a few minutes then turn it back on... the fans kick in at high speed for 10 seconds or so then switch to low speed for some 20 seconds then turn off...

i guess as Daniel said... out cooling system is very efficient and the fans are doing minimal work

MMamdouh

[Puddle31]

the cooling system on the Lanos is definitely efficient. I once blew my thermostat housing and was losing coolant at a rapid pace. It was quite warm out, >80F and I had to drive a long way to try to get home to fix it. For the first 30 miles or so I kept stopping every few miles to refill the sytem to the max. After while I realized that even with all the fluid out of the system below the thermostat, as long as i was in motion (keeping air through the radiator) the system stayed BELOW half way on the guage! I made it all the way home and shut her down, fixed it next day.

[Captain Manic]

I have a '96 Subaru Outback with an EJ25D that is doing something similar to this...the damn thing has a head gasket leak that it turns out is extremely common to this specific engine. When I get time I am planning to shitcan the EJ25D and drop an EJ22E into the car instead. I'll still drive my Aveo every day, though.

[Captain Manic]

Out of curiosity, what does your coolant look like? If you have a head gasket leak your coolant is going to look absolutely like filth, mine looks like it's about half mud, and it has less than 100 miles on it.

[ChrisHarding]

My coolant is clean and green with little or no discolouration so I'm not suspecting the heat gasket. When I bought the Lanos the coolant was a dirty brown foamy water so that was flushed out and replaced with coolant ....ours here is a green colour FYI ... dunno if coolant is any other colour in other countries????

Funnt thing is that now we are heading for Winter, I don't lose coolant any more...if the ambient temp is under 30 degrees (that's Celcius BTW!!!) the car coolant level doesn't move at all!! If the day is over 30 then after a trip of around 100kms the coolant has dropped in the tank maybe an inch or so!!! It doesn't matter if I'm doing short local trips or long 50km runs on the freeway...if it's a hot day, the coolant level drops and there is no sign of any spillage or where it has gone!!! I would much rather be able to open the bonnet after a long run and see coolant leaking/spraying/bubbling somewhere..but you see absolutely nothing!!!

Very strange... for now I keep a 5 litre coolant behind the seat just in case!!!

Chris