Mystery coolant leak.

[monkeyracing]

This one's frustrating. I've got a coolant leak under the hood somewhere. In any case, I'm losing coolant. I can't see any obvious drips or leaks, and there's no steam rising from anyplace.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I know my rad cap is weak, but if it was leaking out of the top there, it'd be a little damp on the top of the rad, right?

Jim

[gdawgs]

If you can't see any signs of a leak, there is a very good chance that your head gasket is leaking. The antifreeze then leaks into the engine cyliner and is turned into steam and goes out the exhaust.

[skeeters_keeper]

my mom's van has the same problem, started loosing coolant consistently but couldn't find any leaks. I told my dad its probably the head gasket, but there was no water in the oil so he didn't think so. then when starting the car from cold it would "smoke" (steam) out the exhaust and you could smell coolant... now he's convinced i was right! It had some over-heating problems (stuck thermostat) and i think thats what did it...

so i'd check your exhaust, see if you can see/smell anything. after a long drive let it sit overnight, then start it up and check.

Assuming that's your problem you can try to re-torque or head bolts, altho i doubt that will fix it, or you may just need to do a head gasket job.

[WmWatt]

If you have a compression guage try checking the compression to see if there's an internal leak. Head gasket leaks often show up as low compression on two adjacent cylinders.

Usually you get drops of (green) coolant under the car if there's a leak in a hose or pipe.

[packrat427]

Re: Mystery coolant leak.

This one's frustrating. I've got a coolant leak under the hood somewhere. In any case, I'm losing coolant. I can't see any obvious drips or leaks, and there's no steam rising from anyplace.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I know my rad cap is weak, but if it was leaking out of the top there, it'd be a little damp on the top of the rad, right?
Jim

Been there , hopefully it is not your head gasket .

I had the same thing happen , I looked forever before I finally found it , it never dripped , every now and then I would see a hint of steam in the morning as the engine was warming up .

It was the little bypass hose that comes off of the T-stat , that has that molded bend in it , it was as soft as a marshmallow and was very weak , I replaced it ,mysterious leak gone .

[monkeyracing]

I'm pretty sure it's not leaking through the head gasket. No smell of coolant or steam at the exhaust pipe. I'm losing enough that it would be noticeable there. It's not going into the crankcase either. I suspect it's either a slow leak through a hose where I can't see it, just enough to smell and notice, but a small enough amount that it would cook off when it hit a hot engine component, or it may be slowly steaming out through the radiator cap.

In any case, I've got to do the head gasket. I've got this annoying little oil leak under the head that I want to fix. (and while I'm at it I'll replace the valve seals, lap the valves, set the valve lash properly, and maybe have the head decked to be sure it's straight)

I suspected my heater core for a while, but there's not enough coolant smell inside the car for that diagnosis.

I'll work on it, and keep y'all updated if and when I find it.

[monkeyracing]

Found it! It seems to be leaking from one of the inlets to the heater core. I'm not sure yet if it's the hose (I hope) or the heater core (god forbid) yet. I'll have to get to it again on Monday. The firewall isn't actually very wet considering the size of the leak. I'm hoping that it's not dripping down in between the firewall and sound insulation, and then out a drain hole at the bottom.

The reason I'm not seeing any puddles is that it is dripping directly onto the exhaust pipe, and vaporising immediately. I just happened to park it at the right angle for the coolant to miss the pipe today, so I spotted it.

[floydiancomplex]

my heater core ruptured it was losing coolant for months and I could never figure out
where from. I suspected the heater core but what a bitch to get at. This theory was
confirmed when i gutted the car for autoX, the entire insulation pad was soaked
through with my missing coolant. Funny thing is it never showed through the
carpet. Nor did it every smell in the car. - Chris

[monkeyracing]

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about.

[bbqsauce]

Inlet pipe gasket

I found my leak coming from the inlet pipe. Constant leak that was dripping off of the front of the oil pan. Not the hose but is coming right off of the area where the inlet pipe and water pump meet. Should have done it when I had the timing chain cover was replaced but I was pressed for time. My problem is finding that inlet pipe gasket. I can find the outlet. Has anyone made this gasket. I've got the material but would like to be sure that this is a flat gasket before I start to pull things apart. By the way, does anyone know of any good illustrations of a festiva 1.3. My Haynes has lousy pics when it comes to identifying parts.