Rad hose leaking chevy optra hatchback 2004

Have you checked all the hoses? Next time it heats up, open the hood, or look underneath and see where its coming from!

If you can't see any obvious leaks around rubber hoses or radiator, it could be leaking though the engine block gasket into engine. Or even escaping through the rad cap when hot, leaking as steam slowly. Try putting a new radiator cap on (rad cap). As a quick fix, put Radweld solution into coolant. Any auto shop has it.

Sounds like the leak's in the hose from the engine to the heater core - radiator uninvolved.
the hoses from rad are (2) upper & lower hose to/from engine, and 2 smaller hoses to/from the
transmission, to cool the tranny fluid.
I found a de-install/ install guide (with pics) for the 2004 Suzi Forenza at:
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/repairinfo/repairguide/repairGuideContent.jsp?pageId=0996b43f8037a11a

but www.autozone.com will want you to register (free) to acces their database.

It is located on the left side of the engine(frt view) remove the rad hose then the 2 bolts holding the housing to the engine and you will find the thermostat.

Wait until motor is cool. remove rad cap and loosen rad drain pet **** under rad. If you can't loosen it or cant find it, remove lower rad hose. let all antifreeze drain. Close pet **** or replace rad hose. Fill with water and rad flush(you can get the flush from an auto supply store or wallmart). Run for the recommended time on rad flush bottle. Wait for motor to cool. Then drain out water. Refill with 50% prestone and distiled water.

this most likely means that you have a leak in a hose somewhere between your engine and the radiator, when you open up the rad cap it lets the leak breath causing it to gush out, go to napa and buy a replacement radiator hose it shouldn't cost but a few dollars and that should fix your problem. 

It is annoying when people automatically assume there is a dipstick and that we are all dipsticks for not knowing. There have been a few cars that have come out on the market in the last ten years or so that have no dipsticks for the automatic transmissions. I also have the same issue with a slow leak from the line coming out of the rad. There is a spot on the front of the transmisson behind the rad hose where you can put in fluid. When you remove this bolt, fluid should come out..if not then you need to add some. To add it jack the front of car and using a funnel add some fluid until it pours out when the car is level. This may take several attempts. If you over fill it just let some drain out into a pan until your at a trickle then put the plug back in. This is the only solution I was able to come across for this. It seems to be a common issue with these cars as it the problem of the lines rusting out and into the radiator making it necessary to replace the lines and rad,

http://www.autozone.com/shopping/repairGuide.htm?pageId=0900c1528021e5b9

hi the heater matrix [rad] will be leaking can be bypassed but then your heater won,t work yates210456

I wanted to change my thermostat too because I thought it was faulty. Come to find out my system was just vapor locked. TO fix it I just poured antifreeze directly into the radiator (not the overflow) and ran it with the cap off for a minute.