Coolant leak

[PEAR0119]

I know that the most common culprit of leaking coolant is the radiator, that was replaced 6 months ago and is not the source of my current leak.

It has me a bit stumped to be honest and is very weird in my eyes anyways. When I first start the car in the morning all is well, I drive to work and park it for the day. When I am finished work I go out to the truck and there is a large puddle under the truck of what seems to be coolant. So I drive it home (same distance and running time) park it for the night and in the morning there is nothing no leaks. It only leaks on the very first drive of the day. I took a look and it seems to be coming from the lower rad hose where it connects to the water pump.

Now, I open the hood and check the coolant levels and they have not moved a bit. And with that much coolant leaking in the morning I would expect to see a drop in levels after a day or two but, this has been happening all week. It's not an oil but I would swear its water but it will not evaporate.

Would there be anything other then tightening that rad hose that could cause these symptoms?

 

[edwx]

Are you sure it is coolant? I would confirm that first.

 

[PEAR0119]

I was able to see coolant leaking down the lower rad hose one day. I'm 99.9% sure its not oil, since the leak is about a foot in front of the engine and two the consistency is pretty much just like water. You feel it and it feels like water until it starts drying then it gets sticky.

I have not had a chance to really crawl under there and take a good look at it though, which I am hoping that I can find some time this weekend to do so.

 

[HBDY865]

You can try a coolent pressure tester, or what i did is turn the car on and look under the car and follow the drips. I discovered my leak was coming from a T shaped aluminum pipe on the firewall. It connects the from and rear heater cores. Just my luck that ford decides to only sell in in an assebmly and will not part it out.

 

[PEAR0119]

With the amount of coolant that appears to have leaked out, I would expect the overflow reservoir to be almost completely empty. But, it's still at the full line . I am just going to continue to check the levels on a weekly basis and see if there is any change.

 

[nh5]

Check the junk plastic thermostat housing. It was causing build up of coolant in between the middle of the cylinder heads all along the top of the engine. My housing has went twice so far torqued the bolts perfectly to spec also. I replaced the top and bottom housings and bought the 2 new gaskets also along with a new thermostat it's finally stopped after the second one but that might change in the coming months again.

 

[PEAR0119]

I took a look at the thermostat housing this afternoon, and everything looks fine there. But, for ***** and giggles I decided to tighten the lower rad hose hose clamps. Well, they were not tight. I got about a 1.5 - 2 full turns out of the clamps before they got really tight. Also the water pump seemed to be wet where is mates with the block so it can be leaking from there as well but, we will see how the tighter clamps work out.

 

[Rjay007]

If you are only checking the reservoir the radiator itself could be low on coolant. As the engine cools it can draw air in through the leak instead of sucking the coolant back out of the reservoir.