I did my water pump and a bunch of stuff not long ago and haven’t driven a ton but a recent drive left a puddle underneath and been trying to figure out where from. Only shows up sometimes and inconsistently at most.

could this simply be an overflow from my initial fill? It cannot be much overall since the tank is still full.

This seems to be where it’s coming from. Location is underneath pass side/middle just behind front tires.

 

yes.. and no. i.e. it could well be that you need to equalize the system and that it is just overflow from the last fill of coolant. if so, you should see that when dried, there is a whitish overflow of dried coolant from the breather at the cap sealing the expansion tank.

the bad news. any leak from the breather/exp tank would not show up where you indicate you believe it's emanating from near or behind front tire(s).

that would tend to suggest either a pinhole leak from center or pass side radiator. but this is purely a "guess".

anytime i have had a coolant leak it's been from not equalizing the system by running with the breather "up" until the level is correct after a swap of coolant.e.g. exp tank/water pump/rad swap etc.

i've never known of or heard of a slow seeping coolant line. that would be "worst case" if even possible. i've only seen and known of catastrophic failure leading to immediate coolant loss.

i would inspect you radiators thoroughly. one of them can slowly fail for an awfully long time. leaving "puddles" and near to where you believe the leak originates.

gl with it.

 

That coolant looks like trash...

 

Ok, so went for a couple other test drives trying to get it to leak more. Did one also with the breather valve up. This time I was hard on it and managed to get it to leak more and got it up on stands super quickly and good thing because I noticed the return line on the passenger side (far outside) was also wet and it dried within a couple minutes which would be why I didn't notice it before. So, guessing there is a leak somewhere and it's going to wherever that drain line comes from (as it's draining the most from that tube).

Anyway, I'll have to take the wheel and wheel well off I thin to see more. I'd bet that the vacuum fill made a hose fail but likely would've failed at some point anyway. Will see.

As far as the look of the coolant, it's all new so prob just the discoloration of the reservoir.

Thanks,

Ben

 

Feel like I’m going a little crazy. I know there was coolant at one point but maybe it was only coolant one time or maybe it’s coming from somewhere else. This drain tube seems like it’s got to condensation from the a/c condenser or something and the wetness on the cold return line might’ve been condensation as well since it was such a hot day today and it felt cold.

 

When I replaced all three radiators, I overfilled the circuit, however, all of my leakage was at the coolant reservoir, from what I understand, there is a spring in the coolant reservoir cap, if pressure is too high, the cap will release the pressure (and coolant) through the cap, which then will drain down the overflow tube. This is the ONLY spot where mine leaked.

Hope this helps.

 

if you know that you have no leakage from any of the radiators.

condensation from the a/c is the "better" guess and the location you first reported is just where condensation would "pool".

the only location from which coolant is ever expelled, that doesn't indicate a potential problem - is the breather at the cap.