[Gotter]

Filled up fluids Sunday. Drove to work yesterday and today. No problems. Pulled into carport this evening, turn off car, coolant starts to come out from mid-to-rear engine bay... lower hose? Anyways, it wasn't an entire radiator's worth of coolant, and once the engine cooled off, I started it up, idle and revs for ten minutes. temp rose to normal and leveled off., never got hot. Whatcha think?

I have a 30 minute drive to work. Would you trust it?

thanks in advance!

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[Chris Vais]

Just went through this with mine. With the engine bay pans in place underneath, it is often hard to determine where the leak is coming from. the coolant drips down on the pan and accumulates there until the pan overflows, so leak then appears on the ground, but perhaps not in relation to the source.

With my recent experience, there was fluid on the ground everytime the car was shut down and the engine cooled of. Common sources of leaks under these circumstances include, loose hose clamps, leaking water pump, leaking radiator drain, cracked coolant reservoir. The easiest way to locate the problem, in my experience is to have the coolant system pressurized. When I did this with my car recently, I discovered a crack at the nipple that the coolant hose to the reservoir is connected to and a leaking water pump. I installed a new pump, and a new coolant reservoir, tightened all of the hose clamps and pressure tested it again. I still have a very slight seep, not even a true leak, on the radiator tank. I'll watch it, I don't think it is significant enough of a leak to require a radiator replacement.

There are two other possibilities, the heater control valve and the heater core. Most of the time when the heater core starts to leak you will find coolant in the passengers seat foot well, but not always. When my heater core failed last year the bulk of the coolant leaked outside of the car.

As long as there is sufficient coolant in the car to fill the radiator and the water galleries in the engine the operating temperature will remain normal.

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[blue968]

I agree with Chris, make sure you have water in the car and watch the temp very very closely, can cause major damage if it over heats. ONly drive if you must.

agood luck

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[RS Barn]

The O Ring under the waterpump to resovoir plastic fitting have failed lately.
Find someone with a Stant pressure setup and you will find leak.
The stock coolant resovoir caps are 19lbs stock. Very high. When they get old they sometimes only hold 8-10psi. When car is hot and shut off the system can overpower cap and dump fluid on ground via little hose from under cap. This hose then spread green/yellow/red stuff around pan to Earth

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[jfrahm]

Check the pressure cap, if it fails the car will dump coolant after shutdown.

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[Gotter]

finally able to look at this. I checked the reservoir by seeing how much it would take in... MAYBE a few ounces before it topped off. drove it four or fives times this week to see about the temp... right up to normal, never threatened to go higher.

so weird...

thanks all!

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[Nenehubert]

Hi all,



My car has started urinating coolant, too. I had a good look under and it's not from the <acronym title='heater control valve'>HCV</acronym>, Radiator, or any hoses. This is a bummer cause I just did the belts and seals this February, and I'm feeling it's the water pump gasket (this was done 3 years ago with the belts). I took the upper guard off and everything was bone dry where I could see the pump. It's leaking in two spots and losing about 4-8 oz after driving the car each time. I found coolant back on my steering rack.. kinda odd, can the waterpump gasket leak this much? What about the heater core? Is there anything else that could leak in that area? Maybe I need to take the lower guard off to get a good look at the water pump. The car is my DD, but luckily I work 4 miles from my house, so I can top her off when needed.



Thanks,

-Rene

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