Hi All,
This is a bit of a shot in the dark but today I had been out in my 97 XK8 for a short while and when I stopped at a friends office we noticed fluid dripping from under the front of the car. It was dripping quite a bit from the front end in line with the centre line of the car about as far back as where the pulleys are located. The fluid was clear and oily to the touch, did not smell or look like engine oil or steering fluid. All levels look ok and no warnings, the strange thing is when I then drove home about 1.5 miles there was no leaking at all when I arrived. Any ideas would be very welcome as this has me puzzeled.

Best Regards
John
1997 XK8

 

Check all around the thermostat tower and the crossover pipe seals at the front of the heads.
Feel under the water pump for and dampness. If the hoses under the intake, normally it goes to the rear of the block.
Of course wait for the engine to cool before you stick your hand around these parts. By now you should have changed the plastic tower for aluminum one, they are bad to crack along with the crossover pipe.

 

Still hot will have a look round and revert tomorrow morning (UK) just checked brake fluid and coolant, the coolant feels oily to the touch (put finger into header tank) never seen a coolant which is akin to a lubricant but it sure seems like the fluid that was under the car. Are there coolants that may feel oily to the touch it is not like a coolant on a car with a blown head gasket. From experience the engine oil is not contaminated and the coolant system is free from engine oil so maybe you are right and it could be a front end coolant leak ( I hope). By plastic tower I guess you mean the thermostat housing. Forgive my ignorance but across the world terms vary :-)




Thanks John

 

Ethylene glycol coolant feels oily, but it also should smell/taste sweet. I suppose it could be waterless coolant, but I don't know the properties of that.

 

Yes John, a little slick, keep the cat out of garage, it's also poisonous to the animals.

 

Yep, that sounds like coolant leaking from the water pump or above.

When I had my water pump fail last year I had similar symptoms. The coolant felt oily both because of the antifreeze chemicals in it and because it was picking up actual oil residue as it flowed downwards.

BTW, these water pumps often have weep holes through which coolant will flow as their seals fail. It's partly a system to give an early indication of trouble before the pump completely fails. The weep hole on mine was behind the pump's pulley, so coolant could be flung everywhere as it interacted with the pulley wheel. I was only able to see the coolant actually leaking from the hole when I pulled the pulley off right after turning off the car.

 

Hi,
I had a poke round with a torch today and am inclined to agree that it is coolant, checked around the pump but that all looked sound but noticed some fluid pooled in the casting where the thermostat tower bolts on. I have seen lots of reference to these failing although not specifically how they normally fail. I will take the thermostat tower off tomorrow to investigate and give an update.

Thanks for all the comments it's so helpful.
John

 

The best decision at this point is to replace the tower, preferably with aluminum, the thermostat, the short connecting hose and the outlet pipe. That's the black plastic pipe that crosses under the thermostat. You might as well replace the water pump while you're in there, and check the upper and lower radiator hoses. None of the parts is very expensive, but an overheated engine can be.

With that done, how about the chain tensioners? Another potential disaster.

 

@Tuohy, do you actually have a plastic thermostat tower? Or is it metal? It could be fine.

These things can be tricky. My failed water pump actually threw coolant UP into those casting holes. Once things reach the belts and pulleys, well, chaos ensues.

 

You did'nt by any chance have your aircon on at the time did you???