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How serious? Possible coolant leak

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Deleted member 35644

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Hey guys, for the last couple of days after arriving home I'm get the slight smell of coolant as I walk past the front of the car. Finally did some poking around and found a greasy area under what looks like a coolant tube around the thermostat housing area. This looks like it carries coolant to or from the heads, but I'm not real familiar with it. Anybody ever seen this on their 3.7?

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XeninWorX

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Yeah this happens on the S197. Pretty much just need to replace the pump.
 

Cafasco

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Yep looks like it’s time for a new pump…
 
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Dug around and looked deeper with my inspection camera. The oily stains are from a weeping timing cover gasket at the top of the engine. Can't see the pump's weep hole because of the pulley, but all visible surfaces of the water pump are dry. I am truly stumped as to where the coolant smell is coming from. No drips or wetness anywhere. My only suspect is the black plastic pipe in the pictures, and whatever it leads to. The coolant smell is strongest in that area when I put my nose there.

Is that pipe carrying coolant to the intake manifold?
 

mustang6t9

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You can put a fluorescent dye in the cooling system and with a black light flashlight the source of your leak is usually easy to find.
 

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Yes, that pipe leads to the back of the heads and I think to the heater core.

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It may be the O-ring? I would check all the coolant connections, hoses, overflow tank, etc. I've found that the smell can be in a different spot from the leak. Do a thorough visual inspection and after the car is warmed up (with gloves) use some shop towels and wipe all the suspected locations for wet spots.

Check the lower engine cover/splash shield for coolant spills or pin hole leaks in the radiator.
 
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Thanks for the picture and the explanation. I was having a hard time imagining where that pipe goes and was tempted to take the intake off since I was going to anyway, to change the plugs.

I've been all over that engine in the last 3 days looking for any kind of moisture and there just isn't any. I had one of the bottom shields off last week for an oil change and washed it while I had it off, and it is still spotless. The forward shield is dry as a bone as well. I think this is a situation similar to what a friend of mine had in his Explorer years ago where the coolant leak was very slow and it never showed itself or hit the ground, but instead dried on hot engine parts.

I ruled out the pump, although from what I read, that failure is inevitable.
 

Ninpop9

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My water pump showed signs of failure (leaking for weep hole) at 48k so be prepared for that. Its an easy job I recommend using RTV on top of the replacement gasket when replacing. As for the leak, it probably that o ring that cools the lower intake manifold you can buy a set on rockauto for 26 bucks which you will need anyway when replacing the spark plugs. (The upper intake manifold gasket is recommended to be replaced, I also changed the throttle body gasket as well.
 
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Thanks for the input guys. It became CarMax's issue (or lack of issue) about two hours ago.

Switching to automatic.... neuroma is getting worse in my left foot, and has sucked the remaining joy out of driving a stick. It's now just an endurance test.

This should be here by Friday.

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Basspro302

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My water pump showed signs of failure (leaking for weep hole) at 48k so be prepared for that. Its an easy job I recommend using RTV on top of the replacement gasket when replacing. As for the leak, it probably that o ring that cools the lower intake manifold you can buy a set on rockauto for 26 bucks which you will need anyway when replacing the spark plugs. (The upper intake manifold gasket is recommended to be replaced, I also changed the throttle body gasket as well.
Please do not use rtv with the metal gasket it can actually cause it to leak and improper torque on the bolts. Its not needed.
Please don’t be the guy that smears rtv on everything.
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