My son's 1997 saturn is going through a ton of antifreeze/coolant. How can he find the leak?

Answer 1

i own a repair shop and if its not leaking on the ground,and not filling the floor board up inside the car,it has only one other place it can go,and that's through the engine it may have a bad head gasket on it,and if this is so,driving it will damage the engine eventually on it,it has to be going to one of those places,you,ll notice a slight steam from the tail pipe on it if its going through the engine and trying to burn it,other wise look on the ground or in the floor on the passengers side,good luck i hope this helps.

Answer 2

First see if your getting white smoke out the pipe when warm/hot. If that is the case, HEAD GASKET. Next see if you can find any coolant on the ground (make sure the coolant system is always full) and look in that direction. Last, is there any coolant on the floor of the car or on the ground behind the engine, (heater core) or the windows fogging up.
The one thing I forgot was does the thermostat work properly. If the car is overheating, the fluid might be forced out the overflow bottle.

Answer 3

Pressurize the cooling system with approximately 10 PSI of air while the system is full of coolant. If it is an external leak the source should be evident. If it is not evident it is either a blown head gasket or leaking water pump (or both). Good luck!

Answer 4

if your not seeing it on the ground then your could have a blown head gasket. and water is leaking into your oil or if you have an automatic transmission it could be mixing in the trans fluid in the radiator if you have a blown head gasket then it could be leaking in toyour cylinder head and your burning it out through your exhaust. thats a few of the most common places it goes if you have an overheating problem you probably looking at a head gasket or a cracked head

Answer 5

if you cannot find a leak outside of the car and the floor around the heater core is dry then it is going through th engine at the cyl head or engine block or head gasket.

Answer 6

probably the heater core if nothing is leaking on the ground - it would leak onto the passenger floorboard. could be the head gasket too - leaking into the engine

Answer 7

It's probably the intake manifold gasket. GM cars are NOTORIOUS for this, especially if it is a 2.2L or a 2.4L or a 2.6L or a 3.1L or a 3.4L engine. They ALL do it. And it's about $400-$600 to get it fixed.
OUCH

Answer 8

If you don't see a puddle on your driveway, look for steam out the tailpipe which means head gasket. If you do find a puddle, check upper and lower hoses, and water pump.