New member needs help asap!

[peacefrog]

I bought a 96 Explorer in June. The first day I had it my neighbor told me it looked like I had a coolant leak (I'm female, I have no idea). The guy I bought the car from said he'd have it fixed when I contacted him about it. I brought it to his guy who replaced the radiator. I then had surgery on my hand and didn't drive the car but a mile every couple days. When I recovered and was able to drive again, I took a road trip and the check gage light came on, and temp gage was on high. Turns out there was no antifreeze in the radiator. I brought the car back to the radiator guy who ran a pressure test and told me he could not find a leak. Since then, I have to put about 3 gallons of antifreeze in the car each week. The check gage lite comes on, the needle hits high, and when it does the heat blows out cool air. Then the needle goes down and the gage lite goes off. Yesterday there was steam or smoke from the engine (even though I put a gallon of antifreeze in it the night before), but the needle was on low and the check gage lite never came on. The thing sputters and feels like it's going to stall. There is some white smoke from the exhaust, but it's winter and it's cold here and it isn't noticable after a while. The oil is not milky. Oh, it also needs a new catalytic converter, which I cannot afford. Any idea of what the hell the problem is?

 

[Mr. Blue]

Are you pouring pure antifreeze into the radiator? if so it has a higher boiling point than a mix, a 50/50 mix of anitfreeze and water will last much longer. Hope this helps Best of luck.

 

[1Aauto]

Welcome to the site

 

[Rick]

White smoke could very well mean that water is getting into your cylinders and turning to steam during the combustion process. Strange that the oil isn't milky though considering how much it's using. Do you notice any smell of antifreeze in the vehicle? If so it could be a leaking heater core. Check to see if your passenger carpet is wet, but then again... 3 gallons is an awful lot!! I think that would be hard to miss.

Quite the puzzle...

 

[emac2001]

heater control valve. mine would randomly empty out all my antifreeze whenever it felt like. like a 10 dollar part and if memory serves me right 5 hose clamps.