850 Automatic 2.5 20v coolant disappearing

[TomW]

Have done 20k with no trouble and am now at 70,000 miles. About 1000 miles back a heater hose came off so put back and tightened up and all appeared ok and topped up with 5 liters straight water, all ok. Now she is consuming a litre every day or so. No visible leaks anywhere. Checked oil filler cap and no sign of mayonnaise. Coolant water is not oily either. Oh I have not mentioned she runs on LPG in case that should affect things.
Where is the water going????? Also is it important to add ANTIFREEZE in the summer months???????
In need of any suggestions
Thanks Tom

[ALANT5RBEAL]

HI Tom
I am sure you will get a host of replies but yes it is important that you keep antifreeze in it all year as it stop the water corroding the system
Cheers Alan

[Richard Swinney]

Tom,

It maybe worth a look at all of your pipework joints.
I have had 2 issues with coolant in my experience of owning 850R and S80 T6.

The 850 started to consume some water ( about a a pint a week). After some searching this was traced to a intermittant leaky coolant reservoir filler cap. Check for signs of dried fluid around the filler cap.
Apparantly it blows out at certain pressures, and mine had given up the ghost when luke warm. A new cap and voila.

The T6 developed a minisclue leak from the bottom of the engine rad, which I did not notice as I have a sump cover. Again the loss was small, but did seem to be worse in hot weather or if aircon was on.
This came to light on morning when I left the house and noticed 3ft wide by a 1/4 inch deep pool of red liquid under the car.
A check of autobox fluid was ok, as was steering oil. I was baffled, but took it to the dealer for a check. I was able to look at the underside as the technician removed the sump cover and blew the ##### off with an airline. I had cracked bottom right hand side of autobox intercooler rad and engine rad.
Sorry, now for the killer...... £790 parts later plus labour and I was back on the road.
All fluid levels fine, and not losiong any water now.

Thank goodness I took the warranty.
Hope you trace it ok.

Regards

Richy

[markas]

Hi Tom,

Just and added note with regard to the coolant. There is a newer design of cap for the expansion tank so it might be worth investing into. Also check all your coolant hoses i have recently replaced my as a preventive measure. If you can flush the system yourself and make sure you have a 50/50 mix. If you are only adding distilled water, well i do not add tap water. Anyway without any antifreeze in the mix then you will of course start to boil your water in the coolant system just to the lack of real coolant.

Anyone dealer i have noticed sell coolant cheap in the summer that i have visited so if you fancy do it yourself and using volvo why wait.

mark.

[Chris_Rogers]

!!!!!!!

Please make sure it's not going into the auto gearbox, the fluid should be cherry red, if pink goo this is very bad news!

Hope it's just the tank cap!

Regards.