coolant leak

[dsmcraz]

Hi guys, few days ago i was getting my deck installed at the shop and i noticed that all of a sudden the coolant started leaking from the front driver side and after a while there was a pool of coolant on the floor...i drove the car home carefully, while driving on the way, there was no overheating but as soon as i hit my driveway..the car started overheating. After a while, I put the coolant to check where is it leaking from, and at that point, nothing happened and there was no leakage at all.... Even i drove the car again that day and there was no leakage throughout the entire day...Next day i put the coolant again to check the leakage, and this time the coolant started leaking right away and the leak was right beside the timing belt cover.... I am still driving the car and the weird thing is that sometimes it leaks and sometimes it doesn't.... Even when the coolant leaks, the car doesn't overheat and the temperature stays normal... Anybody has any ideas what it could be? Is it safe to drive the car in this condition?

Thanks

 

[welfle18]

well unfortunately buddy I just had this same problem. Turns out the its my water pump. I had the same symptoms as what you are having. And after I started tearing into it realized this is a little out of my mechanical ability to fix. Good luck and hope that you figure out the problem, but it sounds like a water pump problem.

 

[talon187]

if its your water pump you should change the timing belt water pump and tensior while your there. when i bought my car the perious owner installed a new timing belt and didnt change the tensior or water pump and 2 months after i got it the tensior started to fail good luck

 

[dsmcraz]

Thanks for the replies guys.... i was just wondering if it would be safe to drive for now because the car is not overheating?

 

[turboglenn]

if its your water pump you should change the timing belt water pump and tensior while your there. when i bought my car the perious owner installed a new timing belt and didnt change the tensior or water pump and 2 months after i got it the tensior started to fail good luck

yea, mine did the same thing last summer.... you should throw a new timing belt in while you're at it, but if it's not needed yet or you don't feel up to timing the cams, take a bunch of zip ties and secure the belt to the timing gears in as many places as you can put zip ties...then jsut make sure teh crank doens't turn while you've got the parts off to get the new pump in.. i did mine in about 2 1/2 hours, but i've had my motor apart planty of times... get a manual or use teh instructions on the 1gina2g swap PDF to set the timing marks back up and yyou should be able to get it done in a day if you're a first timer at it.


i made mods to ,my timing cover ( cutting parts of it off ) to make the job easier in the future... also, instead of teh "tool" for re-setting teh timing belt tensioner, just unbolt it, then clamp it back down in a vice and throw a small allen wrench through the hole to hold it in place till you're ready to turn it loose to tension things up when you get it back together

EDIT: YES, it's safe to drive for now... i drove mine for a few weeks that way untill i had the free time to fix it.. just keep the coolant topped off and you should be good to go!

 

[Defiant]

Thanks for the replies guys.... i was just wondering if it would be safe to drive for now because the car is not overheating?

Absolutely maybe, or not. Do ya feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya? A water pump seal can dribble for a year, or it can fail in fifteen seconds. The difference is how quickly they fail. Good luck with that. The pin is out of your engine's grenade.

I wouldn't. I know what kind of "luck" the Albatross has. If I can find that pissed-off Gypsy woman, I will apologize.