Car keeps eating my coolant

[Jed the Fred]

I've had to fill up my coolant tank twice within a week. For some reason my car has been eating up my entire coolant. Need help guys ASAP.

[mr.vang]

white smoke out the tail pipe? if so your head gasket is on its way out.

[MR E30 325is]

Hate to state the obvious, but I hope you have checked for leaks under the car, and inside the interior.

[Jed the Fred]

white smoke out the tail pipe? if so your head gasket is on its way out.

No white smoke

[ELVA164]

Both of these guys are right. White smoke at the exhaust pipe, loss of power, wetness around the bottom of the head, and "milky" oil are all signs of a head gasket failure. The heater core inside the car can leak and will show up around the footwells on either side of the HVAC panel. If the car is losing coolant that quickly, any leaks will be pretty obvious so let the car sit overnight and look around. If you don't see anything, start it and let it idle in place. Sometimes the leak becomes a lot more obvious once the system pressurizes.

[Jed the Fred]

Hate to state the obvious, but I hope you have checked for leaks under the car, and inside the interior.

No leaks. Put a pan under my car and nothing there. Interior is dry too.

[Jed the Fred]

Oh and my car overrheated and some loud beep came on

[ELVA164]

Oh and my car overrheated and some loud beep came on

Probably a temp gauge warning or something. Sounds like a head gasket, but it would obviously overheat without any coolant...what did the gauge show? An empty system will show full cold on the gauge.

[Jed the Fred]

Probably a temp gauge warning or something. Sounds like a head gasket, but it would obviously overheat without any coolant...what did the gauge show? An empty system will show full cold on the gauge.

The gauge went all the way hot when it happened. But I just filled up the tank let the car run for 30 min. Checked for leaks. Nothing there but I think my car just needed a little more to be on the safe side. She seems fine but I'll keep y'all posted. Thanks!

[bastianshaw]

if you put cold water in whe the head and block was still hot you could have warped the head and have a small HG leak

[nyChris]

Sorry to say, it sounds like you have a blown head gasket. If you can't find any leaks, and you have no coolant. The only thing left is you are burning it. It doesn't just vanish.

I would look around again. Check where the head meets the block. I didn't have a leak per-say, but air bubbles seeping through the gasket when at temp.

Good Luck!

[jalopi]

Pressure test it... that, or like everyone else said, HG. However, when I still had my m20 it had a slight head gasket leak, but ran pretty much OK for a few months.

[restart]

I didnt see any check of the oil results? that should help?

[Dalejandrino]

I had a similar problem so I replaced my head gasket, but the problem was still there. I had to fill the coolant every week and i would have milky oil every time I checked the dip stick. I had it taken to a shop and they took the valve cover off and pressure tested the cooling system and noticed coolant was coming out of a small crack by cylinder #2.

So before you think about paying for a head gasket replacement, I think you should either rent a pressure tester and do what I had done, or take it to a shop to have them do it for you. The money I spent replacing the head gasket could have gone to a new head instead. Even though I replaced the head gasket myself, the seals and other gaskets that you have to replace add up.

[ME30W]

I had the same exact problem myself about a year ago. Coolant was "disappearing", no leaks and no white smoke. I continued to fill up the tank for about a week, and checked the oil after each drive to make sure oil & coolant were not mixing. Low and behold, after a drive to work one day I had mayo under the valvecover, as the gasket had completely popped.

Save yourself the hassle of needing to get a tow, and put a new HG on, make sure to test the head while you are at it.