Quote:
Originally Posted by merc81
I've had multiple coolant leaks on these vans, in the heater hoses and fittings. See my other posts about this over in the olds forum. Every single hose in the system leaked at one point or another. Don't assume you have the gasket problem again until you have looked over the heater and coolant hoses. I even had the water level sensor start leaking at the wire harness!
There was a pin hole leak on the oil cooler (some engines don't have those) that sprayed a microscopic steam of coolant right out through the grill and was almost impossible to see--but you can smell anti-freeze from a mile away and that was a smell always present until I replaced all the hoses.
Look it over before assuming the worst.
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Thanks for the reply, nudged me to do an update:
Reservoir appears to go from over-filled to "low coolant" warning in about 5-6 days. right now, I'm refilling every 3-4 days, or 2x/week.
Before it went from 1/4 to 1/2, the low-coolant warning went off, forgot to add coolant, it got too low, the heat started to not output properly (
output in cycles of hot or cold), then the steaming started. suspect air got in the system, from the reservoir running low. filled the reservoir, and have kept it filled, and it hasn't happened since, and haven't had steam since. didn't have to bleed the system, seems to have bled itself.
My best guess is that the leak is on the outside-loop of the thermostat (
radiator, hoses, etc), not the inside loop (
heater cores, engine block/head, etc).
It's definitely coming from the right/front. I've been temp-parking it in the same spot in the driveway (
to unload, before parking in the garage), it snowed about 1/8th-1/4" a few days ago, and that's where there was a circle of no snow. Also, I've put cardboard in the garage under that corner, and it's not pretty.
Given the complexity of just about every system in the van, I can subscribe to it being something as simple as a worn item. I don't believe it's something complex, I'll go with it being something as simple as worn items... just that there's 2x-3x more of those wearable items, in these complex systems.
As long as I can make it until the spring without a catastrophic failure, then I can start dealing with all of these preventative (
and other) maintenance issues. It's getting scheduled maintenance, and lots of monitoring/attention, yet it's definitely a high-risk vehicle. The van lived a hard life, was relatively neglected (
yet not abused), and I suspect my driveway is it's hospice. It's one major-mechanical from a part-out, yet I suspect that it's longevity will be functional to how I deal with these little duck-peck issues. This is really old-school vehicle ownership... keep an eye out on everything, watch the gauges, listen for noises, and don't ignore anything. In the hands of most other owners, the van wouldn't last a month.