Bad Radiator Cap? / Coolant Disappears

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GlennSullivan

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JMHO. Today's car "manufacturers" are really only designers and assemblers. The days when the automaker manufactured (from raw material) the majority of the parts that went into their vehicles are long gone.

Today most automakers manufacture only the frame, body panels and sometimes the engine and transmission, most everything else (Including most of the engine and transmission components) are manufactured by other companies and only assembled by the automaker.

This leaves quality control in the hands of those other manufacturers who are being pressed (very hard) by the automaker to produce the parts they supply at the lowest possible price. I'm certain the automaker spot checks incoming components and sub assemblies, but that is very different from the high level of QC that comes with in-house manufacturing.

Because they have less control, automakers frequently have multiple sources for many items. This also helps explain why in some cases certain vehicles have issues with a particular part (Sub Contractor A) while others do not (Sub Contractor B). Another explanation is a silent design upgrade, where a part is silently changed mid-year. Such was recently brought to light by others on this site with Ford thermostats.
 

20EBXLT

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For anyone that is interested, I documented my heater hose repair here. I had a failure at 60k or so on my heater core hoses. Part numbers included in the description. Figured it was worth sharing or if someone stumbles upon this later on. Apparently that hose or the "Y" piece in that hose has been used on the ford flex and has the same issue. The fact that the turbo is right below those heater hoses and can throw a lot of heat that rises up to the plastic heater hoses fittings doesn't exactly make a bunch of sense from an engineering standpoint.

 
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BlakeMAX2019

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As a follow up, for my problem of very slowly disappearing fluid, it was a slowly failing water pump.
I’m monitoring my coolant and had to add some recently…I’m suspicious of the water pump after seeing your post. How did you figure it may be the water pump?
 

Aaron Buchanan

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My truck was showing trans temp over the normal 180-195. A/C was intermittently working. Fans were staying running. Seen small sign of coolant in the valley on block near pulleys. will drip slightly from weep hole.
 
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