coolant leak...I can't find it?

[FirebirdHatesRice]

Today I was driving around town and started to notice I could smell some coolant from my heat. Immediately, I pulled over and popped the hood. I could see my engine steaming, either from the coolant or because it was so damn cold here in Massachusetts.

I checked everything, overflow tank, radiator cap, heater core hoses...nothing was wet. The only place I can see coolant is on the bar that connects the suspension, it's right in front of the oil filter. That's a bit wet, but not too bad. However this leak started...it's only a drip at best. As I drove around I also noticed that I could really only smell the coolant when my T-stat kicked in.

Any ideas where I should check out or what the problem could be?

[3.4 slow to go]

could just have a pin hole leak, & that it doesn't really get bad until coolant hot enough to expand the hose & escape.

[awesomeame]

it could be coming from the pump itself...it's located right above the k-member, sorta beside the oil filter....and there's a plastic elbow under your TB, (also above k-member) which can crack...a guy just replaced his, there's a thread on that in this forum somewhere.

--matt

[FirebirdHatesRice]

I'm going to check that out tomorrow with a mirror, I've been thinking it might be the weep hole on the water pump letting me know it's on its last leg. If it is in fact the water pump, are those expesive/difficult to replace? Do they generally go bad at around 83,000 miles?

[Freeser]

Matter of fact mine just died about a month ago and I had to get it replaced (milage=85000)...but mine wasnt just the water pump...I also had a leak from the timing chain gasket (right behind the water pump)


Matt

[PewterBird]

I can't remember where I saw this, but I think you can buy UV sensitive trace fluid for your coolent system. So all you would have to do is idle the car for a few minutes to get it through the system, then crawl under the car with a black light. The leak will show up in bright purple.

I can't remember the name of the product, but good luck.

[jtigger]

The water pump went out on my 97 firebird at just over 50,000 miles. My 98 bird I have right now has the original water pump with 148,000 miles on it and is still ok. I beleive it was right around $50.00 for the pump and took around 2 hrs to swap out when I did it on my 97.

[Freeser]

Ya thats about right I got my 94 water pump (even though I own a 93) for about 38 bux from kragen and i took me about 2.5-3hrs to swap out that gaslet on the old water pump took forever to clean off :mad: .

[FirebirdHatesRice]

Well last night I finally got access to a garage, and now that I've looked closer...its not coming from the K-member. It looks like right under the oil filter there's a drip pan or something like that. When I laid down a rag beneath it, there are a few small drops coming from the right side and middle, while a larger amount is leaking from the far left side of it. I'm not so sure its my water pump anymore...is there anything near that drip pan that can leak/break? I'm going to go check it out some more today, I'll give you guys an update.

[FirebirdHatesRice]

UPDATE: I just got back from checking the car out. I jacked it up, looked around, and I can't pinpoint any place where it's leaking from. It is dripping from the splash pan/skid pan throught the holes. The end of it (the part that you can see right below the oil filter) is where everything is coming from. I have no idea whats located in that area that could be causing a leak, I've also been wondering if there is a way to find the weep hole of the water pump without removing it.

Do any of you guys have any thoughts? Have you had a leak in that area before? I've looked all over under the car and I can't find anything thats leaking, I only see the coolant drip from that skid plate.

I've been searching the forums and I really think the problem is my water pump. I'm going crazy here though, I can't find the water pump weep hole...I have a good feeling that it's leaking, but I can't see it leak and I can't find it. All I know at this point is that all the leaking coolant is coming out of that skid plate. The other PITA is that as far as I can see there isn't a constant leak. Whenever I open the hood and try to look...nothing is leaking.

One idea I had was that maybe the coolant reservoir tank was too full and it had been slowly dripping out into the skid plate. I checked the reserve it there is quite a bit more coolant in the reserve than there should be. Is it possible for the coolant to leak out through some sort of weep hole on the reserve until it gets back to the normal amount of coolant in the reserve?

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I trust alot of you guys for your advice, you've helped me out on several other occasions. I'm just trying to determine if this is something that I could easily fix myself, or if I need to dish out some cash to have a shop look at it and fix it. I'd just assume not pay a couple hundred big ones if this is a simple problem.

Thanks again in advance,
Brent

[ January 18, 2004: Message edited by: FirebirdHatesRice ]</p>

[FirebirdHatesRice]

Based on past message board posts, I really think the problem is my water pump, can anyone back this up?