Disappearing coolant
 

My daughter's 2001 LW200 seems to have developed a coolant issue. She drove through the other day on her way back to college and I changed the oil. She mentioned that her coolant low light was on. I topped it off an gave her some extra to insure that it truly was topped off. I didn't see any puddle under the car but she has had to refill it twice in the last 4 days (back at college).

With no puddle, my next thought is a leaking head gasket. The car is not here so I cannot examine the exhaust for any coloration.

Any other thoughts? Does the car have a histroy of head gasket issues?

I consider myself a decent mechanic, anything special to look for when taking the head off to replace the gasket?

did you find any traces of coolant in the oil or on the dipstick? The dreaded chocolate milkshake?

No puddles may simply mean the coolant is leaking (from the radiator, say) and being blown back onto the rest of the underside of the car. Any sign of wetness under there when you changed the oil?

With the help of a friend, she should be able to tell you if it's blowing white sickly sweet smelling smoke.....

You did not mention overheating....I would definitely recommend getting to the bottom of this before it does overheat and potentially cause more damage.

Nothing wet under the car. No puddles or moisture on the underside - then again, I wasnt really looking really hard. Also didn't look closely at the oil. I know, my mistake - she didn't mention the coolant issue until after I was complete. She told me temp gauge was normal, never elevated at any time.

I've asked her to drive the car for a while and get it warmed up and then go to a clean parking spot. Let it idle for 5-10 minutes and then back up to see if there is a spot.

She is also going to have one of her friends follow her and check her exhaust smoke to see if it is heavy and white colored.

In the meantime, she is going to check and top off, if needed, the fluid every morning. I told her to keep an eye on the temp gauge and to park the car if it became elevated.

She is back here on 10/2 and I plan to do any repairs during that weekend.

How hard is the timing to reset? Is it a chain or belt?

With the head off, I was going to go ahead and do a 60k service. What parts would you recommend?

For reference, I do full rebuilds on my V6 Mitsu VR4, including 60/120k svcs, valve jobs, and modifications.