Check up in the engine V and see if there are any leaks in there as this is a known problem.

 

I know “coolant” is what you want to focus on - they’ve been fiddling w your car. Do yourself a favor and do a visual inspection of the air intake plenum -
make sure it’s PERFECTLY on. I sense you have a vacuum leak.

 

OK. Let's get this sorted. Your mechanic sounds inept btw, so I'll assume he has done NOTHING right. This will cover your situation and not make poor assumptions that he did tests right or at all.

First, let's rule out serious damage in a very quick and easy way. Perform a compression test and that'll tell us right away if you've sustained serious cylinder damage or not. This tool is cheap and easy to use.. Then we can simply trouble shoot your coolant leak issue which is probably a fairly easy fix. You could rent for free from most stores actually but I'd buy one because it'll be useful on every engine you'll have for a lifetime.

COMPRESSION TEST INSTRUCTIONS:
Go to your parts store and get a compression tester or order the one above. Wait for the engine block to be cooled down where its comfortable to touch, this is for engine safety, not your safety. Remove your fuel fuse. Confirm the engine won't run when you try to start it. Remove a spark plug and install the compression test tool in it's place, snug it down just past hand tight until the O-ring seats and makes a seal, the components are brass, you don't need to tighten it to hell. Crank the engine for 7 full seconds and read the gauge. WRITE THE NUMBER DOWN. Remove the tool and put the plug back, check the next cylinder and do them all. Reinstall your fuel fuse, you're done. Don't worry about how high or low the numbers are. Instead worry about the differential between them. Generally <10% between highest and lowest cylinders is what we're hoping for, in a perfect world they'd all be within a few psi of each other. Post your psi for each cylinder here.

Next up we need to pressure test your coolant system, you can do it using the system itself and simply look for leaks but you may find that difficult and we won't know any numbers. A step better is to use again a tool you can get at your local auto parts store which you can rent free or buy but they're 60-100 bucks for a decent one at minimum.

COOLANT PRESSURE TEST INSTRUCTIONS:
Make sure the engine is nothing more than warm to the touch, the coolant hose by the radiator should be easy to squeeze and not hot. If it's hard, it's under pressure and pulling the cap is going to burn you. Attach your test unit to your radiator cap or in the case of no cap on the vehicle you can attach it to the coolant reservoir cap using an adapter it comes with. Check this before you leave the parts store to be sure you've got what you need. Pump the unit up to the proper pressure which will be shown on your cap or manual etc. There's usually a red bar on the gauge, don't go past that. Bar = 14.7psi on Earth. Looks for leaks. If you have no luck, you can pickup a UV flash light and a UV dye for coolant, run the engine a few minutes with the dye added and then do this test and the UV dye will be easier to spot at night. Find your leak! To remove the unit, it's got a bleed valve where it threads on usually, follow the book ti comes with if you need. Once pressure is removed, put your cap back on your vehicle and you're done. It's nice to be able to do this safely without a hot engine and without a fan going around ready to chop your fingers off. If your system holds pressure for 10 minutes or better without dropping, you don't have a leak, otherwise FIND THE LEAK! It sounds like you've seen plenty leaking. If your pressure dropped and there was no leak, it may be leaking inside the engine! Please let us know the results as you find them out.

Once these tests are completed we can move on to the next steps. I too as others have mentioned think we likely have something else going on but we need to first make sure your engine is not damaged and is being sufficiently cooled before we spend time guessing. Vacuum leaks can be easily detected in a few different basic ways in a matter of minutes usually but again, first things first.

-Greg

 

Thank you Turbo Greg..fantastic.
An update. Our regular Shoppe which we have gone out of the way to dedicatedly go to for some 6-7 years were negligent.
They were so backed up with they're reduced hours..5 day work week and making sure to get out of work on time
the car mostly sat from Monday thru Sat...they said they drove it for 7 miles found nothing wrong and said they did a pressure test
and find nothing..They hardly had the time to do the oil change for us.
We drove the car 16-17 miles got home whole front of car smelled like Coolant..looked
underneath within 2 minutes a good sized circle of Coolant on the ground and cat underneath car sniffing it.
This as I described before.
The next day Sunday..neighbor comes over and says let me see the car.
Opens hood sits in seat starts car pumping gas and I'm no mechanic at all and I hear and he says.."something doesn't sound right".
"Let's go for a ride.." He drives off with my wife and at 6:30 on a Sunday goes directly to his mechanic 3 blocks away.
Henry from Haiti an older real mechanic is just relaxing ready to go home.
Henry look at this.
Neighbor pressing on gas and Henry moving Hoses..my short wife see's coolant coming out underneath the plastic motor cover.
Henry takes off Cover and Hose is broken completely right there ???
Diagnosed in 2 minutes ??
Henry goes in his shop cuts a metal tube inserts it into each end of hose clamps both ends and says..needs a new hose and
two others cracked and ready to go. Ordered good OEM Hoses and in a few days took LR3 back and that's it.
The Resevour had plenty of Coolant..the Coolant loss we were seeing on the ground and smelling was from the Engine.
So now we have a mechanic 3-4 blocks from home..instead of 7 miles away and we can go back home and work instead of sitting in
the waiting room most of the day..or Ubering $15 each way back & forth.
They should have seen those aging cracking hoses..they had changed Thermostatic Housing in September and Radiator in December all
due to Coolant leaking..just careless negligence. And someone in the shop is lying..no pressure test could have been done and not detect broken hose.
Maybe they pressure tested something else ?
Many thanks

 

Yikes. Well at least you figured out that the shop is a joke. They indeed didn't do a pressure test, I'd demand a refund for that if they claim to. I'd call and ask what exactly they DID do and see what they say. For a pressure test, maybe they meant compression, I'd ask them for the compression test numbers if they did the test, they should have them. If not, another refund situation.

It may still be worth doing a compression test for piece of mind if you want to know that your cylinders are fine and be aware of their current status. It's a little strange that everyone's hearing thing sounding weird, most times, coolant leaks won't change how something runs. So that's a small red flag to me.

-Greeg

 

Ok I will ask new mechanic if we should do a Compression test just in case.
My wife called the other Shop and Owner was infuriated and was going to look at video of exactly who worked on
the car.No charge for pressure test only oil change.
I hope the Engine is fine.

 

It's most likely fine but it's nice to put a real number to the equation which is why I like doing compression tests. They give limited but useful data.