Wierd Leak

Have you jacked the car up and looked at the underside in that area? Many times, the source of the leak will be forward from where it drips down at. As you drive, the wind blows the leaking fluid towards the back of the car. It's just a thought, and may not be the case here.
Also, I leaned the hard way the the bushings (the large ones anyway) on the suspension arms are oil filled. They can rupture and leak out the oil.
Lastly, did you check the underside of the AC compressor? Compressor oil has a very slight yellow tint to it. It can leak a pretty good bit before it starts to fail.
 
Bumping semi-old thread due to me leaking something for the first time today. It was the coolest day in at least 2 months and I think I leaked coolant???

I am about to go outside and take a pic of where it leaked.

I came home from school (10 minute drive) There was alot of traffic so it was stop and go. Nothing was out of the ordinary. My temp gauge was normal the entire drive (i look @ it alot whilst driving). I get home, go inside. Come back out about an hour later to run to autozone and get some food.

As I was going in my car I noticed a puddle of liquid near the drivers side of the engine. I got down and touched it and smelled it and it was clear-ish and not really any odor, if I had to guess I would say it barely had the smell of coolant (the yellow coolant doesn't seem to have much odor anyways).

So I popped the hood and the reservoir was still filled just above the MIN lines. I drove anyways and monitored the gauge... Everything was normal and when I got home, right after turning off the car I watched for more leaking and got nothing (this time i drove longer than 10 minutes too). So I took off the wiper/hood cowl and inspected the bottle as good as I could. I did not see any leaks or liquid around the bottle. It is almost impossible to see under it though.

So for those of you with cracked bottles where did the coolant leak out to exactly? I am gunna go snap a few pics right quick.
 
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After seeing the pics with the flash. It is definitely coolant as the camera clearly shows the liquid is yellow. I could not tell that from just visually looking @ it on the garage floor.
 
Nobody has had a degas bottle leak before? :rolleyes:

I have another question. When changing the Degas bottle, does all the coolant in the system come flooding out?
 
when changing the degas bottle, you must follow the steps in the tech atricles on how to properly drain,flush,fill the coolant system, it starts by removing the draincock on the radiator, (bottom passenger side) once the fluid in the degas bottle is empty, theres 2 bolts on top of the degas bottle, and there is a hose with a clamp on it that is under the bottle that must be unclamped, that is located driver side wheel well above the fuel filter, (behind the splashgaurd) you just pull the old one out, and new one in, clamp, 2 bolts and follow the tech article
 
Yea i know how to change it. I just didn't know if all the coolant comes rushing out all over my garage or what.

I guess ill set up a bucket - how much coolant are we talking about here?

It seems if you drain from the radiator, it ALL comes out?
 
Yeah everybody has

Damn Degas bottles are junk, fine hair line cracks appear over time. No you won't lose all your fluid, just what is lost from the bottle itself, Get a turkey baster and pump the fluid out till you empty the bottle then replace it. Next get the air out by bleeding the system.
 
tireman said:
Damn Degas bottles are junk, fine hair line cracks appear over time. No you won't lose all your fluid, just what is lost from the bottle itself, Get a turkey baster and pump the fluid out till you empty the bottle then replace it. Next get the air out by bleeding the system.
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Has anyone ever tried reparing the crack? I was thinking of using fiberglass resin to repair a plastic crack on something else.
 
lsdarkshadow said:
Has anyone ever tried reparing the crack? I was thinking of using fiberglass resin to repair a plastic crack on something else.
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That seems unlikely to work. The bottle heats to over 200 degrees and then cools to whatever the outside temperature is. It also pressurizes to 16 PSI and back to zero over and over again. Because of this, it is always flexing a little bit. Anything glued on is likely to be worn off.
 
I actually did the fiberglass resin trick on the overflow bottle for my Taurus, and it held out for just over six months then it just fell off exposing the pin hole leak again. Not the best fix but it got me through the winter without having to fork out for the new overflow tank.
 
TheArchaic1 said:
I actually did the fiberglass resin trick on the overflow bottle for my Taurus, and it held out for just over six months then it just fell off exposing the pin hole leak again. Not the best fix but it got me through the winter without having to fork out for the new overflow tank.
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Nice. I think I am gonna try it and wrap it. I can't afford a new tank and I still have a garage full of other parts to install first.:D
 
smell or taste the fluid and you should be able to identify it. being a mechanic who grew up in the garage this does not disgust me as it would some. I eat breathe and sleep car. but dont drink the stuff either, spit it back out. im just saying.
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coolant is apparently sweet. be careful though, it can cause renal failure; i don't know what the minimum toxic dose is, but i doubt it's a drop or so to taste, and esp if you're spitting out.

prior to the advent of labs/dipsticks, docs used to taste urine to see if patients had diabetes (it spills into their urine).

i'd rather lick whatever is on OP'a garage floor before someones urine- spit out or not...
 
Damn Degas bottles are junk, fine hair line cracks appear over time. No you won't lose all your fluid, just what is lost from the bottle itself, Get a turkey baster and pump the fluid out till you empty the bottle then replace it. Next get the air out by bleeding the system
Click to expand...

will pressure testing your system show this leak?
 
I had the same issue with a strange leak as well. I drove 25 miles to work @ 7am. Got to work. Went out to my car on my break @ 10 and noticed a leak coming from the same exact place as shown in Andrizzle's pictures. That was about a month ago. Then it happened again the other day. Those are the only times it's happened. I park in the same place everyday at home and there are no spots under the car. I just got a Mobil1 oil change and the shop checked the car and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. He topped off all my fluids tho. I figured that was what might cause a small over flow.
 
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