I own a 2012 Toyota Camry XLE with the 2.4L engine with 165,000 miles on it. I took it to my mechanic for an oil change and they performed a safety/checkup. They found nothing out of the ordinary and still in great shape for that many miles. I am not surprised by this.
My wife & I were on an trip to Panama City Beach and after we were there a few days driving around when the temperature gauge show the engine overheating. Upon inspection, I found that the radiator had no fluid. I know at one point I smelled antifreeze once and only once before that. I then went an purchased a gallon of antifreeze, a water pump, cooling system stop-leak and a thermostat, just in case. I replaced the lost coolant & added some of the stop-leak. I drove it home and had very little coolant loss. In the last 3 weeks, I haven't seen any loss since we got home.
My question is where did the coolant go to? No leaks, no drips, no geysers, nothing. Have you ever seen this before?
Thanks in advance for any answer.
Either the coolant leaked out or it burned due to a bad head gasket or cracked cylinder head. Not much in the way of other choices available. You could pressure test the cooling system to check for non-obvious leaks, or use cooling system dye. The stop-leak may have temporarily "fixed" the leak but I would not expect it to last. (Hopefully it won't clog up your radiator or heater core.)
I was afraid that the head gasket was leaking, but usually you will get a telltale smoke from the exhaust. None exist here. I guess I will run it until it fails and trade it in. We are talking about trading soon anyways. BTW, I didn't dump a whole bottle of stop leak in, I just used a 1/4 at most. We shall see!