rocketscience
Active member
Howdy,
My 96 B4v is retaining pressure in the expansion tank when cold, the next day or two, with some pressure in the upper radiator hose. Its not a ton, but it gives a healthy hiss when I open the cap. When started cold I can see some tiny bubbles rising up into the tank. If I run it for a minute or so from cold and then take the cap off, the expansion tank is not pressurized. I just started losing coolant at a very slow rate, maybe a pint in the last 1000 miles. The coolant looks bright pink and there isn't any discernible coolant presence in the oil. I do get smoke on cold startup but didn't think that was out of the ordinary, its done that for quite a while and smells like it always has. It starts fine and runs great, usual mpgs. My heater also doesn't blow that hot anymore.
Does this sound like a head gasket problem? I'm not sure what else it would be, but I've read some cars retain pressure (Drivebiwire said its normal), or that the system can build pressure if it cools down at night. I can't really say that I've noticed it doing that before now. If it is a HG I'm guessing the leak may be small enough that a compression test might not show anything and I hear block testers on these are useless. Maybe I'll do a crackle test on the oil.
The car overheated a couple of times two years and probably 20k miles ago due to fan problems (PO had it wired directly to the fuse box with tiny gauge wires) but hasn't overheated at all since, driving hard over mountain passes etc. on a pretty regular basis, especially last summer. I've had intermittent coolant leak problems on the car and have replaced most of the hoses and seals, but it hasn't leaked any coolant in at least 10 or 12 months until now. I've had to have the hose clamps pretty tight, for example, the new replacement 3 hose F shaped setup down behind the water pump leaked from one of its legs, so I put on a screw down hose clamp next to the assembled one, so maybe its been running at slightly higher pressure? I've been assuming the current coolant loss was just another little leak, a clamp the needs to be tightened but haven't crawled under to look yet.
I have the time to fix it now, but I need to make the 1200 mile trip to Boise and back next month. If it is the HG I'd probably rather just fix it now than wait for it to get worse. The car has 355k miles but the PO put a rebuilt head on at around 290k (broken timing belt). I replaced the TB at 340K.
Thoughts?
My 96 B4v is retaining pressure in the expansion tank when cold, the next day or two, with some pressure in the upper radiator hose. Its not a ton, but it gives a healthy hiss when I open the cap. When started cold I can see some tiny bubbles rising up into the tank. If I run it for a minute or so from cold and then take the cap off, the expansion tank is not pressurized. I just started losing coolant at a very slow rate, maybe a pint in the last 1000 miles. The coolant looks bright pink and there isn't any discernible coolant presence in the oil. I do get smoke on cold startup but didn't think that was out of the ordinary, its done that for quite a while and smells like it always has. It starts fine and runs great, usual mpgs. My heater also doesn't blow that hot anymore.
Does this sound like a head gasket problem? I'm not sure what else it would be, but I've read some cars retain pressure (Drivebiwire said its normal), or that the system can build pressure if it cools down at night. I can't really say that I've noticed it doing that before now. If it is a HG I'm guessing the leak may be small enough that a compression test might not show anything and I hear block testers on these are useless. Maybe I'll do a crackle test on the oil.
The car overheated a couple of times two years and probably 20k miles ago due to fan problems (PO had it wired directly to the fuse box with tiny gauge wires) but hasn't overheated at all since, driving hard over mountain passes etc. on a pretty regular basis, especially last summer. I've had intermittent coolant leak problems on the car and have replaced most of the hoses and seals, but it hasn't leaked any coolant in at least 10 or 12 months until now. I've had to have the hose clamps pretty tight, for example, the new replacement 3 hose F shaped setup down behind the water pump leaked from one of its legs, so I put on a screw down hose clamp next to the assembled one, so maybe its been running at slightly higher pressure? I've been assuming the current coolant loss was just another little leak, a clamp the needs to be tightened but haven't crawled under to look yet.
I have the time to fix it now, but I need to make the 1200 mile trip to Boise and back next month. If it is the HG I'd probably rather just fix it now than wait for it to get worse. The car has 355k miles but the PO put a rebuilt head on at around 290k (broken timing belt). I replaced the TB at 340K.
Thoughts?
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