Help! Losing coolant from somewhere!

[Patrick]

Hi everyone. Found this site by mistake and I love it. I just bought a 1995 Nissan Pathfinder XE-V6 with 129,000 miles. It runs great- rode from New York to Maine and back with no problems- except one. I lost about 1/2 of the coolant in my resevoir on the trip. Also, just driving about 60 miles in 3-4 days, I lost 1/2 of my coolant in the reservoir once again! I fill the coolant to max in the reservoir on cold and check it on cold. There are no visible drips whatsoever from the car-it has been parked in the same spot for a few days. I took it to the garage- they pressure tested the radiator (pumped 17-18 psi) and put it on the lift- they could not find a leak. They checked the radiator for exhaust fumes with the color changing liquid tube- color stayed the same. They used a blacklight test to look for leaks and found nothing. My exhaust doesn't smell sweet and there is no water/coolant in the passenger side carpet. They checked the oil- it is not milky or have spots from water. They took it for a test drive- didn't notice anything.

Please help because I know it is going somewhere, I just cannot figure out where. I shouldn't be losing coolant this fast should I? Could I need a new radiator cap?

 

Thanks- Patrick

[k9sar]

perhaps she's just thirsty. Is your radiator level low? I never trusted that the exchange to/from my resevoir actually worked properly. My level stays the same but due to a small leak at my water pump, I lose some fluid from the system. Not sure what to suggest here except try to isolate the resevoir from the radiator and see if it's a leak in your system or in the actual resevoir tank.

[88pathoffroad]

When I'm offroading, antifreeze bounces out of the reservoir sometimes.

[ChromoTech]

mine too one time i overfilled it and it just kept on dumping out of my overflow tube