Bigeggroll

sorry, i'm not sure if this has been asked yet, but i tried searching the forum to no avail.

Ok here is the deal, i keep filling my coolant resevoir and it keeps going down after a few days, i believe i have a leak and was thinking about using a mityvac cooling system pressurizer in order to locate the leak, and am wondering if anyone has an opinions on doing this? or maybe a better way to locate the leak? i'm planning on changing the rad cap 1st to see if this resolves the problem.

thanks

xviper

Have you done a coolant flush lately? Or is this just something that started to happen on its own? If you've done a flush lately, it can take several driving cycles to burp all the air out and each time it does this, it draws more fluid in.
First check the following:
Is the connection at both ends of the little hose between the rad filler neck (under the cap) and the overflow reservoir tight?
Other than the obvious evidence of a leak (green residue), you are losing coolant either via vapour escaping out a leak somewhere to the outside (crack in rad, bad hose clamp, weak rad cap, seapage out old hose) or you've got a leak going into the combustion chamber (head gasket or crack in cylinder).

Bigeggroll

it started doing it on it's own, i'm gunna replace the rad cap and also check the tube between the reservoir cap and the radiator as u suggested. Hopefully that's all that needs to be done, but if it still continues to leak do u think it would be possible to find the leak using a pressurizer of some sort?

how can i find out if it's leaking into the combustion chamber via head gasket or crack in block? i remember someone mentioning about testing ur coolant for trace amounts of hydrocarbons or something like that.

thanks for the help xviper, i can always count on u for sound advice and information

Eluded

Honda's response would be: what leak? what smell? it's all in your Head.

Shadow_S2K

If you are leaking fluid...one possible way to tell is if you notice any puddle forming under your car? Also you should also be able to smell the radiator fluid when you turn on the air...or when you are at a stop.

xviper

I notice that you have a year 2000 car. That was the only year that had "ordinary" coolant. The year after, Honda went to a long life Type II coolant. If you have the original coolant still in the car, it was only good for about 3 years. Your car is now about 6 years old. That coolant may simply be causing your cooling system to begin to corrode. This may be resulting in all sorts of problems, the first of which is coolant loss somewhere in the system.
You don't seem to be losing it at a rate that you would see it in the exhaust if it was getting into the combustion chamber. You can always get a leak detector kit that puts a dye into the system and you then look for leaks with a UV light.

ExOdy

Do you smell any coolant while driving? It might smell "sweet".