Coolant disappearing

[jaedaliu]

My parents have an old 95 Nissan Quest minivan that is consuming coolant. I visited them back in March, and was surprised at how loud the radiator fan was once we got off the freeway. Took a look, and the coolant reservoir was empty. I refilled it, it emptied into the radiator after about a minute, then filled again. Repeat until full. (maybe 5 times?)

Anyways, in the month since then, the coolant aparently leaked enough for the car to overheat while stuck in traffic. After filling the reservoir with water and coolant and waiting, the car started up again and ran well enough to get my mom home.

My question:

Are there any long term reprecussions of havign a coolant leak? There doesn't appear to be any sort of external leakage, so it's either small, or something.

Is it okay to just weekly refill the reservoir to max?

 

[Pacfanweb]

First thing: Pull the oil dipstick and make sure it's not overfull, and looks like chocolate milk. If it is and does, stop driving immediately, because the coolant is getting into the oil.

Otherwise, if they don't have a leak on the ground, the coolant is likely getting into the cylinder somehow and getting burned. As long as it's a small amount, it won't hurt anything short-term.

Long-term....for this to be happening, a gasket has failed somewhere, and if it has failed this much, it's very possible it can get worse, which could dump an excessive amount of coolant into the engine and wipe it out by hydraulically locking the piston.

Now, it's also possible the weep hole in the water pump is leaking and they just don't see any on the ground. That's an easy fix...all it is, is the seal on the water pump shaft going....just replace the pump.

Otherwise, keep an eye on it and keep it full.