2014 Acura TSX about 110k miles. 4 Cylinder automatic transmission.
The maintenance reminder light came on to drain and refill the coolant. I was following the procedure and was using one of these funnel systems.
I noticed I didn’t have a water tight seal while letting the engine warm up, using the funnel with coolant in it, and letting the bubbles come out and be replaced by coolant in the reservoir. So I twisted the cap and spilled. No big deal. I turned the car off and wiped off what I could and restarted letting the engine warm up.
I got up to just under idle temperature, and I started noticing white smoke. I thought it could have been the coolant that I spilled, but it also seems to just be the coolant smoking in the funnel that I have on the radiator. So I turned off the car.
Should I just ignore the smoke and continue the process of waiting for two fan cycles and burping the loop, letting the bubbles come out?
To be clear. What I did is drain the radiator and reservoir. Refilled both. Tightened the cap on the reservoir, and left the funnel on the radiator. Was letting the engine warm up and wait two fan cycles, with the funnel still on the radiator with coolant in it, observing the bubbles come out
I have noticed that the coolant does seem to have a small leak somewhere, as far as the history of the car goes. About every two oil changes, the coolant goes from Full in the reservoir to about in the middle on the next oil change to almost at the Low level on the second oil change. This was before I started drain and refill procedure, and I got this as a used car. I didn’t notice any milky color oil last time I did the oil change, and was not able to find the leak. But it does appear to be leaking somewhere, at an excessive rate. I have had no overheating issues, and as long as I have had the car, it has never overheated.