Cooling system issue/leak

nelliott500

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I have a mysterious cooling system issue right now. Drove my wife to the airport yesterday, on the way home I get "Check engine temp" and it was showing hot. Pulled over with the car off, popped the hood, flecks of coolant on a lot of stuff at the front of the engine bay. So, I let it cool off for a little while and continued to drive home since I was only a mile away. Turned the car off at red lights to keep the temp down.

Did some investigating today... can't seem to find any leak. The upper radiator hose was replaced less than two months ago. I refilled the system and let the car run for a while, fan kicked on, everything seems fine. I couldn't seem to get any hot air out of the HVAC system until I drove it 1/4 mile down the road. Then, when it was on 90*, it was very hot.

Rented a pressure tester from Advance Auto. If I try to pressurize at the degas bottle, I get nothing. You can hear air just leak out when pressurizing. It won't hold any pressure at all. Sounds like the air is leaking right at the fill hole. I can't pinpoint this being an issue with the degas bottle or the pressure tester. Could be the seal on the part you screw on to the bottle but it looks basically brand new.

Then I pressurized the system to 16 psi at the engine fill neck. Pressurized just fine but seems to have a very slow leak. Took a few minutes per psi but it eventually dropped to 14 or less before I got sick of standing there watching it. Still can't see anything leaking while pressurized.

Couldn't test the cap at the engine fill neck. Apparently the kit doesn't have the right size tester.

What's my next course of action? I'm wondering if something happened and coolant poured out of the overflow ports in the fill neck. Maybe the seal on the cap is worn out (looks okay to me but that doesn't mean anything)?
 
It's almost certainly the coolant outlet pipe. It may be cracked, and/or one of the small hose nipples on it may be broken. You need to replace it, the thermostat housing, and the plastic cooling part under it - at a minimum.

Here's a couple of recent threads that links to some good past threads on it.

http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/showthread.php?t=83383
http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/showthread.php?t=83338

(It's not from the coolant overflow/pressure relief port. That pours coolant on the ground near the driver's door, it doesn't spray it on the front of the engine.)
 
I see two different parts labeled "outlet pipe". 8A504 (#15) is the part the thermostat housing bolts to and 9N499 (#23) is the little elbow underneath. Is that what you mean by the coolant outlet pipe and the plastic cooling part under it?

This is the diagram I'm using:

tHprB.png
 
I see two different parts labeled "outlet pipe". 8A504 (#15) is the part the thermostat housing bolts to and 9N499 (#23) is the little elbow underneath. Is that what you mean by the coolant outlet pipe and the plastic cooling part under it?

...

Yes.
 
This is where I am so far... parts, gaskets, and replacement bolts if I need to do the cut method with the elbow:

a13Rq.png


Unfortunately, fordpartsgiant.com doesn't list an expedited shipping method for me so I'm trying to contact them about it. I really need this car fixed, preferably in the next few days.
 
You need two of the 8255A gaskets, but I'm not sure if that's 8255-CB or 8255-CA. (The gaskets are often reusable anyway.)
 
I'll likely just end up reusing any gasket I don't have a replacement for. I just figured since they're not that expensive, wouldn't be a bad idea to buy new ones since I'm already going to be digging in there.
 
I'll likely just end up reusing any gasket I don't have a replacement for. I just figured since they're not that expensive, wouldn't be a bad idea to buy new ones since I'm already going to be digging in there.

That's pretty much the way I did it.
 
Got it all fixed yesterday with a buddy of mine helping. Was a bit of a pain -- took about 6 hours including a run to the dealership. Opened the petcock and only got less than 2 quarts out. I was expecting a lot more. Made a hell of a mess once we started pulling hoses. Replaced the serpentine belt as well. Less than 70k miles and the old belt looked really bad.

The problem was the outlet pipe (the elbow #9N499). Pulled the larger pipe #8548 and noticed a piece of plastic ring just sitting there. The area where the elbow meets the larger pipe became brittle and fell apart. You could see a lot of coolant had leaked onto the elbow. It was pretty white.

Had to cut the two rear bolts like mentioned in the other threads. I don't see any way around it. I have no clue how anyone has done it without cutting. Cut the two out and made two shorter ones.

Ran into an issue with my thermostat and housing though. Went to move the thermostat into the new housing and the thermostat was too small...? The side of the housing and a marking on the thermostat said "MotoRad". Apparently someone replaced the housing and t-stat with some knockoff. So, I ran to the dealership with the parts to figure out what went wrong and picked up a new t-stat for $33. Not too bad.

Got it all filled and bled. Seems good.

Thanks for the help, Joe.
 
Okay. I think the 8A504 part number is wrong though. I'm seeing 8548A on www.fordparts.com and www.fordpartsgiant.com so I'm going to assume that's the one. Here's the diagram from fordpartsgiant:

m6GdJ.png


the part between 8260 and 18472 is cracked on mine...was wondering if anybody knows how to purchase just that connector piece or am I going to be forced to buy a whole assembly? Or can I just use a high temp epoxy and patch it?
 
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the part between 8260 and 18472 is cracked on mine...was wondering if anybody knows how to purchase just that connector piece or am I going to be forced to buy a whole assembly? Or can I just use a high temp epoxy and patch it?

You'll need the whole assembly. It was pricy from my local dealer, but Tasca and Team both had it for quite a bit less.
 
the part between 8260 and 18472 is cracked on mine...was wondering if anybody knows how to purchase just that connector piece or am I going to be forced to buy a whole assembly? Or can I just use a high temp epoxy and patch it?

You can't patch it. Part 8260 is one part, two hoses permanently attached to the plastic tee. Order it (the upper radiator hose), and you'll get the whole thing. Within a month, you'll be annoyed to find that one of the other nearby plastic pieces has cracked. You would be wise to order them all and replace them at the same time.
 
so my next question is why do I see some upper radiator hoses that look like this":
http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,c...google.com+Search+for+2004+LINCOLN+LS+3.9L+V8
when they're supposed to look like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-FORD-TH...B-/230709297517?forcev4exp=true&forceRpt=true
The difference I see when I pull them up is that the first one is for the 04 and up but the bottom one is for 03 and below.

The Rockauto one is the wrong part or they have the wrong part pictured. At that price, I suspect it is the wrong part. The E-bay link says for 03 to 06, which should be correct. I don't see where you are seeing it as 00-03.
 
You can't patch it. Part 8260 is one part, two hoses permanently attached to the plastic tee. Order it (the upper radiator hose), and you'll get the whole thing. Within a month, you'll be annoyed to find that one of the other nearby plastic pieces has cracked. You would be wise to order them all and replace them at the same time.

My Upper radiator hose busted last night. Which other pipes are you suggesting get replaced?
 
My Upper radiator hose busted last night. Which other pipes are you suggesting get replaced?

It's pretty well covered in this thread and the links given.
 
It's almost certainly the coolant outlet pipe. It may be cracked, and/or one of the small hose nipples on it may be broken. You need to replace it, the thermostat housing, and the plastic cooling part under it - at a minimum.

Im sorry i was confused as to why you were suggesting he replace those. I thought it was more specific to the problems in the OP. Once i checked the 2nd link you posted i understood.

To be fair i feel silly now, since i now realize this thread is an exact answer to my question i just posted. :D. I just get a bit overwhelmed. I replaced my coolant reservoir, the cap, overflow tank, serp. belt, thermostat, thermostat housing and the gaskets about 2yrs/30k miles ago(Im at 105k currently). Im going to have to borrow money from my dad so i was just asking to narrow it down to things deemed necessary.
 
Im sorry i was confused as to why you were suggesting he replace those. I thought it was more specific to the problems in the OP. Once i checked the 2nd link you posted i understood.

To be fair i feel silly now, since i now realize this thread is an exact answer to my question i just posted. :D. I just get a bit overwhelmed. I replaced my coolant reservoir, the cap, overflow tank, serp. belt, thermostat, thermostat housing and the gaskets about 2yrs/30k miles ago(Im at 105k currently). Im going to have to borrow money from my dad so i was just asking to narrow it down to things deemed necessary.

That's okay. (BTW, you have no overflow tank.)
Anyway, what's necessary is just what's leaking now. The rest of the stuff is what's wise, and will eventually fail.
 
Okay.....so I've changed the following and I'm still overheating: Water Pump, T-Stat and housing, degas bottle, water inlet tube (8548A), upper radiator hose, lower radiator hose and serpentine belt. The upper radiator hose is extremely hot yet the lower radiator hose is ice cold. I'm thinking radiator isn't cycling fluid correctly or there's some kind of blockage in there. Any other clue as to what the problem may be?
 

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