Coolant System Mystery

Have the radiator cap tested. There is a valve in it and if that is broken it could pass too much fluid into the overflow tank and when that fills it will come out through the tube.

If the car is overheating you might also see fluid going through that path. Under those circumstances that valve should be open, otherwise something else in the coolant system has to "give" to release the pressure. However, if this was the case it should turn on the warning light.

 

That tube is supposed to go in between the fans through the fan shroud that metal thing that holds the fans it's supposed to run in between the two fans there's a channel right there that the water will run down all the way to the ground without getting blown generally speaking the metal is folded just look at the space where the clip is where the hose is supposed to be I've been looking at this for the last couple of weeks I've got a car losing coolant too and it's some of it does come through that overflow tube but not all of it and my car won't suck it back and forth and all like normal cars do it's probably gen3 thing . But I know my particular car is a head gasket problem I don't know about yours. Without taking the plugs out with one of those boriscopes that can look back up at the mating surface with the system under pressure or early in the morning after sitting whatever that's when you know all of these chemical things and all this and that sometimes they work sometimes they don't hard to tell all that other stuff the looking with the camera it's like she's running done and they're not that expensive to buy rent and whatever. With the quality of cars as they stand today you'll be using it on probably many vehicles going forward

 

If you can't find it coming out anywhere, isn't that a sign of evaporation?

 

I'll be interested to see what you find I have the same problem going on now seeing the coolant just like you do I have changed the thermostat the one I took out seems like it was working the new one I put in I'm pretty sure is working. And still have the same problem and it's kind of frustrating but I also every so often not every time but every few starts the car will misfire in the morning I'll step through it with the gas pedal then get off the gas and it idles perfectly it seems like there's a little bit of water getting somewhere that's causing that stumble because other than that the car runs perfectly all day all night until it sits overnight and then I might not get back to it until the next day or possibly the next and then when I do get to it and start it it'll miss a little bit not set the light off or anything and clear right up drive like a dream go 16 to 22 24 miles come back to the house let it cool down a little bit enough to release the pressure without losing any coolant so I can see what's happening in the radiator and my coolant is down from the filler neck where it usually should be standing to below the level where it is exiting the neck into the radiator which that's like what three quarters up the radiator so I'm little more than a quarter down the radiator out of coolant. And then I had about a 2 l bottle worth and that fills it up to the top of the filler neck and it stands like that for 5 to 10 minutes and stays and I cap it off do that all over again and that's what I'm doing service vehicle I believe it's a head gasket.

 

Also possibly, again, a bad radiator cap. If they leak out the sides only at high temperature the coolant immediately goes to steam when it sees atmospheric pressure and leaves no trace at the place it exited.