Coolant leak on passenger side. Any possibility other than water pump?

[Aciancio]

Sorry if this is a little long. I got back from a road trip to Colorado a few days ago. put around 2800 miles on my 2013 base Explorer with nothing out of the ordinary. Yesterday while sitting in a drive-thru I thought I heard the aux cooling fan running and thought that is odd, I checked the engine temp and it read normal so I just assumed it must be the car behind us that I was hearing.
Now today I went to meet some friends for lunch, after about 6 miles of city street driving the "engine coolant over temp" error comes on and the engine looses some power. I pull into the next parking lot and find there is coolant streaming from the passenger side and the reservoir tank is empty. I let the engine cool down a little bit and think (hope) maybe it is something with the heater so I shut it off. I was less than 1/2 mile from my destination so I started her back up and checked and didn't see it leaking so I drove off. Just as I was pulling into the parking lot I was going to the error came up again and I was again leaking from the passenger side. I opened the hood so it could cool while I ate lunch.
I added about 1.5 gal of water to the reservoir tank and started it. Again I didn't see any leaks so I headed home, this time keeping an eye on the engine temp screen. The temperature stayed normal the whole way back but it was leaking again when I got home. I have checked the oil and found no signs of coolant in the oil and cannot find any signs of hose issues. I cannot seem to find the weep hole to see if that is where it is coming from. So my question is.

Is there anything else on the passenger side that would leak coolant? or am I just wasting my time looking for that weep hole and just need to accept defeat and get a water pump?

Thank you

 

[boominXplorer]

Radiator hoses both connect on the back side of the engine which is on drivers side. If it is not the radiator itself then it is most likely the water pump. Weep hole is behind alternator, looks like a .75" freeze plug with a tiny hole in it

 

[Aciancio]

That's what I'm afraid of, and kind of figure. I know where the weep hole should be, I just don't have a small enough head (or mirror) to see it and know for sure. I don't see anything else in that area that would be coolant related other than the reservoir tank hose and I have already checked it.

 

[peterk9]

It likely is the water pump and coolant is leaking from the weep hole. Have you checked the oil on the dipstick to see if it might be contaminated?
There could be coolant that entered the engine as well. It may not be a good idea to drive it anymore if it is the pump.
Water pump failure leads to dead engine

Peter

 

[94Eddie]

On the up side you may have caught the failure before it did catastrophic damage to the engine. I am interested to know how many miles are on your Explorer.

 

[BradleyCanadian]

2017 Police Interceptor Utlity .. with 225,000 miles. This tread is over 4 years old. But incase someone else has the same issue...on mine the plastic valve that controls rear climate control near the pass fiewall was cracked and leaking. Dripping on the inside of the passengers front wheel. I Turned rear heat off and the leak stopped. Drove 1000 miles no coolant loss. But started leaking a month later ...all the time. Big job to replace it. Upper intake has to removed from engine. Waiting for repair estimate.

 

[peterk9]

2017 Police Interceptor Utlity .. with 225,000 miles. This tread is over 4 years old. But incase someone else has the same issue...on mine the plastic valve that controls rear climate control near the pass fiewall was cracked and leaking. Dripping on the inside of the passengers front wheel. I Turned rear heat off and the leak stopped. Drove 1000 miles no coolant loss. But started leaking a month later ...all the time. Big job to replace it. Upper intake has to removed from engine. Waiting for repair estimate.

Welcome to the Forum.
I don't think I've rad about that particular issue here before.

Peter