96 won't retain coolant

96 golf with 180K kms won't retain coolant. i can fill the resevoir up and watch it go down within minutes of starting it. the weird thing is that it doesnt' seem to be leaking anywhere. i havn't really risked driving it too long to see if its overheating. anyone have any suggestions on where the coolant is going and why i can't keep any in the vehicle?
much appreciated

Well, it's going somewhere. Have you checked to see if the engine oil level is going up?

no change in the oil level

Well if there arent any drips on the ground then its problably your headgasket thats blown and the engine is burning it. If there is alot of white smoke from the tail pipe all the time then your headgasket is bad.
Also if your thermostat is bad your coolant might be boiling and escaping through the resuvour leaking on the ground.

Have you ever checked/replaced your coolant flange? Cheap part that often fails on mk3s, my own included.

however, I was at least able to see the coolant leaking when my flange was broken.

thanks veedub,
exhaust is alright so thankfully i dont' think its a headgasket. as far as the thermo goes, coolant temp has always been normal. if i let it run for a while i can't find any evidence of a leak which is really driving me crazy because it has to be going somewhere. if i start it from cold i can see the resevoir drop within a minute. would that be enough time for the coolant to even get hot enough to boil?

How much coolant are you adding to the system and how often?

It is normal for the coolant level to go down a little bit in the resivour when the engine is warming up because the system is being pressurized and then goes back up when the engine cools off or the cap is taken off.

depending on how long its being driven for i would say it could take between the min and max level on the resevoir on a daily basis. luckily it hasnt' been driven a whole lot.
i don't think this is related but it is very stubborn changing gears and responding to the pedal. lets say i go from reverse to drive, there seems to be a delay before it kicks into gear, much longer than normal, and when i press on the gas it responds very sluggishly. almost like it doesn't want to accelerate. its the wife's car so i dont' drive it day to day but she told me the other day that it doesn't seem to drive too well in the rain either. not sure if this would be something like a torque converter or what but just assumed it wasn't related to the coolant issue. i really am lost with this

Its normal for the coolant to fluctuate between the low and high level when driving (heat causes things to expand). As for the shifting, deffinately reccomend an auto trans flush with a new filter. That should help the shifting issue. If it runs rough when raining out, your ignition coil/ distributor cap, and spark plug wire replacement should help. (mist some water on those when engine is running and if it starts to misfire or the engine dies replace those parts).

thanks for the tips veedub. it just dropped below -20C here and my garage isn't insulated so i'll probably be waiting a little bit before i work on it. i'll let you know how things go.

c