I have a 2000 Rs, I am losing coolant somewhere. My first impression that it was the head gaskets again, I had them replaces already at 58k and I now have 78k on my car. The overflow bottle and radiator will be full for a few days and then suddenly a couple days later the overflow bottle will be empty. I have seen no leaks in the engine bay, on the radiator or on the underside of the heads. I have pressure tested the sytem at 15 psi and it has help steady, oil level has no seemed to rise or lose alot of viscosity. I am also getting misfire codes in the morning sometimes. I am so lost at this point. All I can figure is that the coolant is leaking into or near the spark plugs and burning off? Help!

 

are you puffing white smoke at all when you press on the throttle?

 

make sure that the heads were pressure tested and that the heads were checked for warpage.i know thats hard to get out of a tech now.but check your reciepts to see if it shows that charge on it.does the gauge show signs of over heating.

 

I have not seen any white smoke coming out of the exhaust. I will have to look more closely. The car is not overheating at all, which is suprised me too. Also the coolant level had seemed to stay the same for the last week or so. I did change the coil pack and that seemed to mostly elminate the misfire codes. Has only happened twice since I replaced 2 weeks ago. I do have a 10.6 lb flywheel and I have heard that you can get those codes from the lightened weight on the motor. I checked the invoice for the repair and it says nothing about checking the heads for warpage. I am lost at this point and am prolly just gonna drive it till it gets to be a noticeable problem. thanks guys

 

yes the lightened flywheel will/may set the code.there is a simple resistance check for the coil.although not needed now since you have the coil.here is a simple way to check for head gasket leakage.since you seem to be doing some work on the car yourself,go to your local auto store.they may sell a funnel that many techs use that clamps onto the radiator in place of the cap.with the car at operating tempture at idle in park and of idle at times.check for any small or large air bubbles come to the top of the coolant in funnel.the funnel is cheap and aides in coolant flushes also.

 

I will give it a try, I have pressure tested it myself though, used a snap-on pressure testor and it help at 15 psi. I am at this point thinking that I may have overeacted and it was just a big bubble in the radiator. Thanks for the help again.