Coolant issue

[crankor]

My 2011 fx35 randomly overheated a few days ago at idle and then realized it was very low on coolant. Well i don't have a leak down tester or anything and it did look like there was some leakage going on the lower driver radiator hose so i went ahead and replaced the radiator. Well, so it did seem stable for a bit after that but the next morning i saw the coolant was almost empty again. (It took another gallon of coolant) so theres def somewhere it's spewing out. Well when it overheated originally there was steam coming out from behind the intake area. i couldn't see anything obvious from any of the lines connected to the intake... well today when the temp went up again (i suspect theres still air in the system from a leak) there was once again some steam/coolant coming from the back rightish area under the intake and it looked like there was coolant down a ways but i couldn't see where the source might be...

So during this process i thought maybe it was the coolant bleeder gone bad but a weird thing, there isn't one on the drivers side (isn't there suppose to be one there? see pic) but looks like theres still one on the passenger side though it looks much smaller. My questions then are, is there suppose to be a bleeder on both sides? and if anyone had any ideas as to where the leak might be coming from? I'm not sure how to tell if the water pump could be going bad. Also today was the first time the heat didn't turn into heat until i started driving and thats when the cars temp started to rise but did drop back down. I can't imagine it being a head gasket since for the most part it stays at normal operating temp but i guess i can't fully rule that out. car has 174k miles on it

Oh also i have new radiator fans on the way since the old ones stopped working, so it had been running at normal temps since ive had this for about 3 months without fans working

[crankor]

Posting an update.....

I still haven't gotten my fans in that were suppose to be here today (said they delivered them but did not) But i did find the cause of the coolant leak behind the engine atleast. One of the lines that was leading down the center behind the intake was torn in a few places and ripped apart from the nipple when i tried twisting it off. I ended up replacing it with the closet match fuel line size.

One thing that still concerns me, well i filled up the radiator and reservoir yesterday and only had the car idling with some revs for testing purposes and today when i checked, the reservoir was empty..... Not sure how that would just empty itself out and the radiator was pretty much empty too. Granted this was before i replace that hose but i cant imagine that it would have leaked from there all night when that would have had to been under pressure....So i'm a bit confused on that part.....

Anyways, i did also add the aluminum bleeder on the left side where there was just a straight plastic piece that was pretty warped,then took me a while to bleed the system. Had no heat at first and had to bleed it like 3 times.

one of the other concerns is it looked like there was always a few air bubbles coming out from the radiator when i left the cap off. That made me worry that the head gasket could be bad, BUT after the third bleed and making sure the system was full, it stayed at a steady temp during the test drive. I didn't drive it too long but it stayed where it should be. (without the fans ha) I would imagine if the head gasket was bad that it would be overheating on acceleration?

well for now my next step is to check the tank tomorrow morning and see if theres any fluid in it and depending on that result, i'll most lilkely bring it into a shop to have a leak down test done. Oh and i didn't get to change the oil yet to check for coolant mixture but from the dipstick it didn't appear to be milky at all so i'm hoping the gasket is fine. I just really don't know where else the coolant could be going over night

[VStar650CL]

One thing that still concerns me, well i filled up the radiator and reservoir yesterday and only had the car idling with some revs for testing purposes and today when i checked, the reservoir was empty..... Not sure how that would just empty itself out and the radiator was pretty much empty too.

The reservoir was doing its job. When there's air in the system, the vacuum created when the engine cools off sucks liquid out of the reservoir. Next time it warms up, air at the top gets pushed out by the pressure. If there are no leaks, eventually it stabilizes. The only glitch is, many times air will get trapped in places where it can't escape. That's when a bleed fitting or a bleed bucket becomes necessary.

[crankor]

Aaaaah ok cool good to know. I took it for another test drive and so far so good