Coolant and Oil leak.???

[TurboKID69]

A few days ago i noticed my coolant was going down, i filled it up today and when i get home its completely gone.?? there is also oil all over my valve cover, I'm assuming its my valve cover gasket but i dont see how it could get on the top of it by the oil cap. My car is not blowing any smoke out the exhaust. What could possibly be wrong, could the valve cover gasket cause this..??

 

[spoolup]

The oil on top of the valve cover is a common problem, pull your oil cap and flip her over the gasket is probally hard as a rock or broken. Just go to mitsu and buy a new oil cap gasket, (they are available sperate of the cap itself) for like $2.00. For the valve cover be sure get the 4 spark plug hole gaskets and the half moon piece as well. And the torque is not much, I use a little 3/8 drive ractching hand wrench (like a hocky puck with the socket coming out the middle). and hand tighten it. Mine has yet to leak. or Crack the valve cover. On coolant problem go rent a coonalt system pressure tester from autozone ect. its a radiator cap with a hand pump, fill your system and pump it up, you will see the leak. If none is found, check your radiator cap, if good. do a compression test on your car. VFAQ can give instructions. a bad head gasket can cause coolant to push or just burn up. Its usually something easy (radiator cap).

 

[TurboKID69]

I just bought a new oil cap and put it on and it still continues. I was wondering about the valve cover gasket because it looks like there is oil all around the edges of it, but the thing is i dont see how it could be on the top of it if the gasket is on the side. I believe the coolant could be leaking from the left passenger side, but im not sure where from. I dont see really any signs of smoke but my car overheats but imediatley goes back down to normal temp.

 

[spoolup]

most valve cover leaks I see only coat the head with oil. Its its leaking on top, its either cracked, or the cap is leaking. What type of cap did you buy? Mistu or a cheap aftermarket. I would still try the 2 dollar trick to fix the top leak. As for coolant. just go rent the coolant system tester from autozone ect. you will know where it leaks from. Your engine is not liking life when it overheats, even for a minute. Its amazing what a little over heating can do to your engine.

You said it leaks on the passanger side, is it up front in the engine bay or further back in the engine bay. Up front you have the t-stat housing and gaskets. Radiator hose. Obviously the radiator. Waterlines of the turbo and coolant over flow bottle. futher back you have the coolant lines for the heater and the T-body.

Best of luck figuring it out.

 

[GSX6bolt]

This exact thing happened to me... But i dont think what caused mine is causing yours.

My coolent hoses had a slight rip in them causing coolent to pour from the car like nutz. Pop the hood and try and see if you can see any visable signs of where the leak is coming from.

Good luck man.

 

[TurboKID69]

what is the 2 dollar trick..? i bought my cap off ebay its an hks as it says but maybe its just a decal, and does autozone really rent those out and if they do how much.. i believe the leak is comming infront of the engine bay, hopefully not the radiator, also does only one fan run at a time or do both of them usually run because only one of mine does sometimes, could that be causing the overheating. Sorry about all the questions but i want to figure this out.

 

[Vallary99]

I used to get oil on my valve cover. I just cleaned the oil cap and the area on the valve cover and it fixed the problem. Sometimes dirt can get up under there and cause it not to seal properly. I would also check your valve cover gaskets. One way to know if they may be good or bad without pulling off the actual valve cover is to remove the spark plugs and see if there is oil in them.

As far as the coolant, I would check the radiator cap. I know this tends to be a problem.

 

[alex99gst]

However stupid this may sound, I was told when I bought the car that it had a coolant leak. Turns out that the previous owner failed to tighten up the drain plug and it was slowly leaking out of the loose plug

 

[spoolup]

the 2 dollar tirck was mentioned in the forst post, just go to mitsu and get a new gasket for the oil cap.

As for the coolant pressure testers, yes autozone rents them out: http://www.autozone.com/in_our_stores/loan_a_tool/heating_cooling/coolant_pressure_tester.htm thing works wonders on finding leaks. And being autozone you pay a deposit to rent the tool, take it back and you get every cent back, so it was free in the long run.

 

[TurboKID69]

ok thanks everyone im gonna try all this and see what happens