coolant leak

[ajb999]

92 efi manual. a couple days ago i bottomed out the front of my car leaving a job pretty good and drove home just fine. the next day i started it up to warm it up because it was pretty cold out and when i came out to leave there was a small coolant puddle on the ground. i haven't had time until today to really look at it and now i can't get it to leak again. it seemed to be coming from this thing which is held in-line on one of the lower coolant hoses by to hose clamps. anyone know what this is? there seems to be some electrical plugs sticking out of it but there's nothing attached to them.

from top



from bottom, kinda blurry but not much to see anyways.


i checked my coolant level and in the radiator and everything is normal so i know i have coolant in there. is this thing necessary? for now i guess i'll probably pull it off and see what i can find out that way. it just doesn't seem to be doing anything unless maybe it's a check valve or something. thanks in advance for any help.

adam

[packrat427]

It looks like a inline coolant heater , it heats the coolant and the slowly circulates it for extreme cold temps to help it start , in the dead of winter .

As for the leak , it is hard to tell , just keep a eye on it , it may have splashed out of the overflow , if it hit that hard ??