Low coolant

[jfile]

About every month my 2001 duramax gets low on coolant. There is no leaks. Any suggestions?

[Buck]

How much "low" are we talkin'? There could be a tiny crack in the head gasket allowing coolant to seep into the engine. Have you noticed an increase in engine oil level during that time period? It has to be going somewhere........

[jbplock]

You might want to do a Used Oil Analysis (UOA) to check for the presence of Coolant in the oil.

UOA sample kits are available from the following:

www.lubespecialist.com (http://www.lubespecialist.com)
www.avlube.com (http://www.avlube.com)
www.blackstone-labs.com (http://www.blackstone-labs.com)

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[jfile]

Is this a warranty issue? I am still under the 100,000 mile mark. Should I spend the time and money to check the oil so and can tell the warranty department what is wrong?

[Mark Heiken]

Mine would drop 1 to 2 quarts every 3-5000 miles when it was new. Finally enough had leaked that we could tell it was coming from the weep hole on the water pump. New pump fixed it.

[oyazi]

Mine was like beeler's. The new pumps don't have a weephole. Noticed just this morning, the level is about 3/16" low. Guess I'll need to chk the hoses.

[jfile]

Beeler could you see an actual drops of coolant on the ground because there is no visual leaks on my truck.

[Kennedy]

A pressure test would be a good way to see what is happening. The hose from the upper rad hose/pipe to the turbo has been found to be bad by others and very hard to trace.

[BradL]

My '01 is in the shop today having the water pump replaced due to leaking at the weep hole. My leak was obvious - big puddle of coolant under the truck after sitting several hours.

This happens after I replaced all hoses and coolant earlier this summer so I wouldn't have to worry about hoses and coolant as I approached the 5 year in service date.

It appears I missed one hose though - there is a small hose, maybe 1/2" id and 4" long connecting two pieces of tubing running above the water pump, that was showing some corrosion/coolant leak at each end, but not dripping. Anybody know what the purpose is for that hose?

[JD Diesel]

I get the low coolant light coming on on mine 10000 miles everything looks good. Need to takr it to dealer and have it checked. Or yall got any ideas? JD :D

[jfile]

The leak finally started to get bad enough to stat dripping out of the bottom. I took it into the dealer and they aid it was a leaky head gasket and it wasn't under warranty because I had a Juice chip. I took the chip out and took it to another dealer this morning. I will post with results when I get them.

[chipper]

BradL,
I don't know what that short hose is for but it broke on my 01 out in the middle of the desert in Nevada towing my 32" 5er. Used about 5 gallons of water to go 120 miles to a garage. D/Max tech in Parker, Az said he has changed about 8-10 of them, they are getting "cooked" & splitting. OEM was wimpy junk.Cost $168 to get it fixed!! :mad:

[BradL]

chipper,

roger that! I drive in Mexico to go deer hunting, so if I had broke down in Mexico for that 4" of small hose after having replaced everything else, I would have been very upset!