no pressure in my coolant hose.

[jaspur76]

Ok, first off I gotta say, I bought this car looking for a beater with a heater and it is anything but that. Got my hooks into a 96 ssei with 137,000 miles for only $1,000. Gave my buddy who is a great mechanic $500 to give it a good once over and replace the driver side front wheel bearing, flush the radiotor, fluid changes including the super charger adn replace the idle,tension pulley. Once thing we noticed is that the coolant hose exiting the radiator is soft and there does not seem to be any pressure in it. He did a leak check and put 14psi?? in it and it held pressure. One thing to note is that the fluid was the worse he has ever seen. He did a thourough flush on it but will probably be doing another one this weekend. After that it is in my hands and I will do what little things I can on it and learn as I go. I am pretty green as a mech. goes. The cap on the radiator is in bad shape. No over heating. Temp runs about 200 and then at idle kicks up to 225ish before you can see the thermostat kicks in and drops it back down. Any ideas on what to look for or what could be causing the lack of pressure in the hose? Any advice is appreciated. Oh, by the way, these cars are nice, I am in love with it. To think I was looking as p.o.s. cars for the same price. Thanks for any info or tips you can offer up. To often I see problems posted without the solution posted by the person asking. Whatever I find to be the problem I will surely post it.

[Mad Myche]

If the radiator cap is in bad shape it may not hold pressure, so the system wont pressurize properly, it will just shift over to the coolant reservoir.

[jaspur76]

ahh, duh. That makes sense. The reservoir does fill up and would also explain why there are no leaks when it is pressureized. Thanks. I will put a new one on tomorrow and see if it makes a difference.

[imidazol97]

I will put a new one on tomorrow and see if it makes a difference.

You might try cleaning the crud off the underside of the cap with a toothbrush and Dawn. The accumulation of stuff keeps it from sealing off the reservoir vent opening with the little washer. I've cleaning mine a couple of times. The radiator also needs to be full to float that sealing washer against the cap above it to seal.

[Mad Myche]

Cheap radiator caps have been using gaskets that are like compressed paper and they will develop a baked in impression of the mating surfaces as they age, and even when clean perform poorly in the sealing department. They are only a few dollars and I replace whenever I flush the cooling system.
Like an oil-filter, you want the gaskets wet when installing to prevent binding. Easiest way to do that is to make sure the 2 mating surfaces are wet when you put it on

[00Beast]

Wouldn't hurt to throw in a new thermostat either, now that the cooling system is open. That, its seal and the cap will be less than $20, and are cheap insurance.

[renchjeep]

Preventative maintenance goes a long way.