actuary

It seems that I am loosing coolant somehow. I dont see it leaking anywhere and never have spots under the car. I filled the resevoir up and there were bubbles coming out of the hose that comes from the driver's side. I searched on the topic and tried one of the fixes. I opened the radiator cap, topped off the coolant, turned on the engine, turn on the heat to max... didnt see any bubbles in the radiator but bubbles in the resevoir kepped going. Revved a little and coolant was spilling so I closed the radiator cap but bubbles kept coming out in the resevoir. Also, I had a bunch if water coming out of the A/C drain tube while the heater was one, is this normal?

SinisterSC

The way I get air pockets out of the radiator is....

1) Get engine up to operating temp and remove the radiator cap (be careful when removing cap as you do not want any hot coolant to hit you in the face.) Leave the car running.

2) Squeeze the upper rad hose to get any (if any) air pockets out of the radiator. Repeat this as nec. topping off coolant as it dips below the neck of the radiator.

If this is your problem it should fix it. I'm not to sure about the water coming out of the A/C drain line when the heat is on. That's just totally backwards. But now that I think about it, is you're car running hot at all?

koolaidman

some of the sc400 have a 10mm hex try opening that and full blast heat recerculation off. if u have that plug it would be right on top of the tb. and if u keep getting bubbles. u prolly have a bad head gasket

KidPandJ

Constant bubbles in your coolant is almost always a blown head gasket (that's where you're loosing the coolant). That is, unless those other fixes work

actuary

Car is not running hot as far as I know. I've only had it for 3 weeks now and the gauge has always shown a hair above the middle line. I'll try your fix, I really hope I don't need a new head gasket. Car has 116k miles, has had 1 owner, and he got all his service done at the dealer. Thanks for the help.

actuary

Nevermind on the heat with the water coming out of the A/C drain... the A/C was on even though it was on max heat

Still got bubbles though When I open the radiator cap, I never see bubbles in there, only in the reservoir

koolaidman

if u can pull out a spark plug and look down the hole. tell me if ur pistons look like if they were brand new. if they are its ur head gasket

KidPandJ

If you want a bonified answer as to wether you should have your head gasket replaced then you need a leak down test. Have a autoshop that you trust to a leak down test of your coolant system. They pressurize it and see if it holds the pressure. If the pressure drops then you have a leak somewhere, if you can't see coolant coming from any of the obvious places then replace your head gasket.