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car keeps asking for water?


itsaprothing

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I have an 83 with the digital dash

 

and recently i've been noticing that after start up sometimes, it leaves the check light red, and when I press the check button, it says water.

 

but after filling water, a few miles later or maybe even the next day, when I start the car again, it's asking for water again, and the reservoir is empty again.

 

I obviously have a leak, but I can't seem to eyeball where it's coming from. anyone know where it is and why it could be leaking other than old age?

 

also, is it a problem I need to fix immediately?

 

thanks, all the help is appreciated.

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If you are losing that much coolant in a day it's definitely something that needs to be addressed. You should also be adding 50/50 water coolant, not just water, the water will evaporate out, plus not provide proper protection to the system. You need to look everywhere, everything on the car is 30yrs old, could be the heater core, radiator, any of the hoses in the engine bay, water pump, etc...

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look around the radiator cap for green crud. I've had two that cracked at the neck and needed to be resoldered. You don't notice much until the car is at operating temperature but if you look closely you may see the leakage then. Unless the head gasket is popped and the oil looks crappy. You need to look at everything while it is hot. The hose from the radiator to the expansion tank can get kinked and the fluid is then forced out the radiator cap instead of going to the expansion tank. when it cools it then sucks the fluid out of hte expansion tank.

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  • 3 weeks later...

my leak came from the hose to the little coupler thingy right before the hose to the firewall.[left side of the block when looking from front] next to the auxil. fan. I believe its the heater hose.. try looking at yours. These old hoses get really hard and starts to crack . tends to leak near the edges where the clamp holds it in place.

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The water hose is not plugged. The water travels from the engine "heater hose out outlet" to the "heater hose water return inlet" on the engine. The net effect is that the heater is bypassed.

 

The reason for the above is / was to avoid having to dig into the dash area to replace the worn-out heater hose that traveled from the engine "out" to heater assembly (under the dash).

 

If the hose was simply plugged there would be no water (coolant) circulation in the engine. Not a good thing!

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