Where's that coolant coming from?!?!
 

He guys,
I was driving home this morning on the freeway and look to see my temperature gauge almost pegged! I pull over expecting a main radiator hose leak, but no. It seems like it is coming out from under my intake manifold on the drivers side it appears. So I proceed to drive 30 miles in 2 hours stopping at every gas station to check water level and to let it cool off. I got it home but now I don't know where to start, I'm thinking of pulling off my intake manifold. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys and gals.

Steve

The coolant channel for the ECU and temp gauge sending units runs beneath the intake on the driver's side. I'm thinking maybe a heater hose connects under there, too; would have to check.

I'd let it cool and give it a long look before pulling the intake.

dcb

Yes. It's a metal pipe that carries coolant from one side of the block to the other. Rare to see them leak.



Dave

Make sure you check the hoses because you can easily miss a pin hole leak that will only show up when it is on the road. I just had that problem and almost missed the leak. :)

I remember looking at that thing when I changed the ECU sending unit and thinking man, I hope that never leaks.

dcb

hoses are more likely to leak, you've got a lot of coolant flowing on that side of the engine, heater core hoses, tb hoses, iac valve hoses, etc.

Heater
 

Hmmm, when I was doing my 20 mph in the slow lane I had my heater on. It was working intermittently so that could be it. Does anyone know any easy way to access the hoses under the manifold?

Steve

The only coolant line under the intake that you can get to without removing the intake are the ones that provide the "heating" to the throttle body (check the "throttle body bypass" thread for pics). I hope it is one of these hoses, otherwise you've got some serious work ahead of you...
-Bill

Wierd
 

Ok, I checked the lines after startup and no leaks. I waited until it got to operating temp and then drove around in second to keep the rpm's up, and again no leaks....my car is possessed. Any ideas on what is going on? Does the pressure in the cooling system increase enough at highway speeds to make something leak so massively and yet not leak at all other times?

Steve

Steve,
did you top the coolant off before driving it around? I'd try to recreate the same conditions as you had when it leaked last time.
-Bill

Coolant
 

Yeah,
I filled it up, with just water of course. I'm going to take it on the freeway tomorrow when I get home from work and see what happens.

Steve

Steve,
Two things:
1. Check for bubbles in the radiator before you let it warm up (just remove the radiator cap and let the car run)
2. Check into getting some dye to put in the radiator - it helps show where the leak is - if you actually have a leak
-Bill

Svx
 

Well I filled it with the car running and no bubbles. I just don't get it, I mean this thing was leaking bad and now nothing? I'm scared my car is going to strand me in the desert.

Steve

That does sound like a hose leaking. Being on the driver side, it could be #12 in this diagram from the water pump to the water pipe. I just recently changed mine when I had my engine on a stand. In the car, you'll have to remove some stuff. Good luck.

If your going to be driving thru the desert, make sure you have the pirate hat and eye patch on, like in your avatar, so when we find the bones we know it's you! :p