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Jim Grant's Tech Tips
'85 Mercury Grand Marquis, Coolant Leak
Q:
I'm
a female student and desperately need my car. A couple months ago smoke
or steam was coming out of the hood of my ’85 Mercury Grand Marquis,
but the heat indicator hadn’t come on. At the garage, they found
the radiator nearly empty and nothing in the reservoir They filled it
with antifreeze and said they found a leak in radiator. When I left the
garage the interior windshield fogged up with a sweet odor. I went back
and they disconnected my heater core because I couldn’t afford to
fix it and said keep the coolant topped off, etc. These last 2 months
I've watched for antifreeze on the ground and never see any but the last
2 weeks I have had to add antifreeze to a dry reservoir twice but the
radiator is full. My questions are: Could disconnecting the heater core
cause the reservoir to be empty or could my reservoir have a leak? I’m
afraid to take the car in and be told it is head gasket or radiator failure.
I can’t even afford the heater core right now. Any feedback would
be appreciated.
-
Carol
A:
The
diagnostic procedure for checking for a cooling leak is to install a pressure
tester, apply pressure to the cooling system, and look for leaks. The
shop found that your radiator was leaking. Unfortunately, your heater
core was tired and did not survive the pressure testing for the coolant
leak. This is not an uncommon occurrance in older vehicles. Disconnecting
or bypassing a leaking heater core eliminates it from the cooling system,
therefore it has no affect on coolant loss. Of course, with cold weather
hitting you’ll have no heat or defroster. The reason for the continuing
loss of coolant is still likely due to the leaking radiator. Being vigilant
at maintaining your cooling system level is critical; you do not want
to overheat an engine on a vehicle as old as yours. However, you’re
going to have to do something and that something is going to require spending
money fixing the heater core and the radiator. May I suggest having the
repair shop check to see if there are any other leaks in the cooling system.
Then have them put together an estimate to repair each item. With that
information, you can start to plan for the repairs. In the meantime, “don’t”
run your engine low in coolant. If you overheat, the repair cost could
be more than the vehicle is worth.
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