Very Low Or No Coolant?

[Abbas]

Hi,

I thought i would check the oil and water today on my IS200 and was worried when i opened the rad cap and could not see any water yea if i put my finger in, it was wet but i am sure last time i checked there was a lot more coolant floating on top in there. I checked the window on the back of the rad near the belts and i could not see any sign of coolant in there as its red i thought it would be highly visible! I opened up the coolant lid situated on the left hand side as if you are facing the car where you would fill the coolant and that looked very dry.

I am worried why it appears the coolant has dissapeared, i will purchase some toyota red coolant tom and fill up.

I have owned the car about 6 weeks, looking at the service history it had 5L red coolant put in it approx 60k ago when a new water pump was also fitted apart from that there is no other history for the coolant.

Anyone experienced anything similar or has any thought/comments?

Regards

Abbas

[sparkystav]

Have a look around the circuit for any sign of leakage first mate, see if theres anything obvious.

And Welcome.

Stav

[P38Aaron]

Im having a little coolant issue at the moment, it seems i have a slight leak from the bottom hose.

it should be fairly easy to locate if you have a leak as coolant will stain, when getting a new car you wanna keep and eye on levels weekly (you dont know how well the old owner looked after it)

Top it up and see how thirsty it is.

[Abbas]

Have a look around the circuit for any sign of leakage first mate, see if theres anything obvious.

And Welcome.

Stav

I have looked around for any leakage but cant find anything.

Thanks for the suggestion, i am guessing the coolant loss has happend over a long period of time...

Abbas

Im having a little coolant issue at the moment, it seems i have a slight leak from the bottom hose.

it should be fairly easy to locate if you have a leak as coolant will stain, when getting a new car you wanna keep and eye on levels weekly (you dont know how well the old owner looked after it)

Top it up and see how thirsty it is.

After pouring in approx 0.25-0.5 ltrs the coolant started to appear in the little window on the back of the rad. So i guess it was just below the minimum. I have now filled it to almost full and will monitor it daily till i am happy there is no problem.

Yea i agree you never know how well the last keeper looked after the car so its best to check everything out. I took it for a full service 2 days after purchase and the garage did not mention any coolant loss. Then again its prob not part of the service so they would not have checked it.

I hope you get your issue sorted

Abbas

[sparkystav]

I would expect the coolant to certainly be part of a service.

Stav

[swfcdan]

keep an eye on it mate, mine keeps vanishing, but cant see for the life of me where its coming from. mines in desperate need of a service and should have been done about 3 months ago, but ive been so skint ive not been able to afford it. Going to get it booked in for the end of the month and also get this issue sorted at the same time

[Abbas]

I would expect the coolant to certainly be part of a service.

Stav

I will ring the garage first thing and ask them... If it was fine at the service then i have a slight problem.

Cheers

[Abbas]

keep an eye on it mate, mine keeps vanishing, but cant see for the life of me where its coming from. mines in desperate need of a service and should have been done about 3 months ago, but ive been so skint ive not been able to afford it. Going to get it booked in for the end of the month and also get this issue sorted at the same time

Almost 2 weeks now and it has not moved so hopefully that will be the end of that for me... (fingers crossed)

[P38Aaron]

Good sign that its settled down, Out of interest do you drive the car every day, mine only started loosing coolant once i got a works van and stopped driving the car during the week, before that it was fine.

[dazz32]

No sludge in the oil?

Leaking water pump? or over flow pipe..the coolant should be at max when hot..i believe its a sealed system so no expansion tank so if its a little to hi when cold it would come out of the over flow pipe so ive been told.

[Abbas]

I drive the car everyday and most weeks go through 60 litres of fuel, sometimes more. The coolant level sits at just over the full mark when engine is hot and when cold its a little lower.

I have drove the car hard to see if the coolant level drops and it still sits at the same spot. The only thing different i can think of doing prior to loosing the coolant before was driving in snow mode for long periods on the motorway over Easter and also parking up with the engine running. (stopped doing that now)

I have been checking the oil as well on a daily basis and it reads just over the full mark every time and seems like everything is okay. No leaks are visible around the water pump or anywhere else.

To be honest that was the first time i checked the coolant since buying the car, as i put it through a full service 2 days after buying i did not bother checking. So either it was missed on the service or i lost the coolant somehow?