I was searching for a parking spot at school when after about 10 minutes of not finding anything, I noticed my needle was in the H for hot and there was a red light on above it. I immediately powered off the engine. I'm guessing that I noticed in the nick of time.

Now this is something new that hasn't ever happened before. I left the car parked in a handicapped spot with a letter on it explaining that it "overheated and could not be started". That avoided me a ticket. I then headed to my class.

When I came back from my class, I put the key in, but didn't start, and got the low coolant message. Sure enough, it was pretty low. This puzzled me because I had topped it off a couple days prior.

I then did a visual inspection of all the hoses. The upper radiator hose is a little old, but it isn't leaking. The same could be said about the rats nest below the expansion tank. Every other hose I could see was either new or ok. Befuddled, I thought. Maybe it's the valley hoses. I still don't know the conditions of those, but I then decided to look below the car to see if there was any dripping coolant.

Et voila! I noticed a leak near the passenger/right side catalyst dripped a drop every two seconds or so. From what I could gather, this is only happening when the car is either idle or parked.

I'm gonna have to put it on jack stands to see better, but, with the given information, what does the brain trust think of this?

Cooling system problems in these cars scare the bejeezus out of me. They're so finicky like that.

 

There is a coolant overflow container located just about where you describe. The over heat probably filled it to overflowing. Top everything up and see what happens. It may take removing the coolant tower cap to burp all the air out of the system.

 

Your fans may not be working. Driving around a parking lot at low speed after being on the road could easily call for the fans. Check the circuits.

 

Coolant tower cap?

Huh, I didn't notice the fans on, unlike pretty much every other day.

 

There is a cap on the thermostat housing which can be removed to bleed air form the line. Careful it is breakable.

I have had good luck with leaving the cap off the expansion tank and burping it by squeezing the top radiator hose as needed. The expansion tank is high in the system, so I believe it will eventually self-bleed.

 

If this happened near/same time as your AC not cooling, I vote for dead fan(s).

 

I had a leak around the same area. Turned out to be the plastic thermostat housing. The leak was running down the engine valley to the back of the engine then down right side of the engine onto the passengers cat. Now there are a couple of valley hoses there too. I could see some moisture with a flashlight by looking between the intake runners. Well good luck finding the leak I found three on mine the thermostat housing, a hairline crack that only leaked under pressure on the coolant reservoir and a hairline crack on the plastic adapter that goes to the heater octopus hose that also only leaked under pressure. Hint if you can get your hand on a coolant pressure tester, do it will save you time and make finding the leak much faster. If it is a leak that is... Good luck...

 

I have the aluminum thermostat housing.

Yes, this incidentally happened the day after my A/C stopped cooling.

If it is the fans, how should I proceed? Could it be a fuse?

 

Be careful because warped heads are a big risk and very expensive.

 

Engine Compartment Fusebox - LH

Cooling Fans - series/parallel : Fuse 12 - 30A
Cooling Fans - parallel : Fuse 14 - 30A

Graham

 

Ok, checked it out. Fuse 14 was burnt out. I replaced it and noticed that the fans began working properly and my A/C also began to cool.


Still, I don't think that solves my leaking coolant problem. I still want to do a pressure test to find any leaks. If I had the money, I'd just have all the older hoses changed in one fell swoop.

 

I agree with an earlier comment...if it's dripping on or near your right side cat, it's likely leaking at or near your thermostat tower, and the escaped coolant is running down the right side of your valley under the intake, and then dripping off the back of the engine block where you see it. Check the thermostat tower very carefully for residue...you can also refill the system, restart, let it heat up and pressurize, and then the leak may be more obvious.

At that drip location, the only other possibility I can think of would be the small hoses and connections beneath the throttle body. Coolant is routed through the throttle body in small amounts, check those connections as well. They're harder to see...it would help if you had a small mirror at the end of a wand.

Good luck.


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Sounds like where mine was leaking. The dental mirror is about the only way to see the leak with the intake manifold installed.