Coolant system damage
12-14-2010, 03:36 PM
#1
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 62
Coolant system damage (WITH PICS)
Just looking for some insight here as to what's wrong.I didn't see what I needed in the past hour of searching, but lots of good info.
Scenario:
2 days ago it gets down to 14* in GA. I'm not sure if I had enough antifreeze in my car. Upon cranking, I get a gnarly grinding sound 3 times in a row. I let the car sit and moved a hair dryer around on the engine for 2 hours. Started right up, but I noticed constant drip coolant leak. Drove the car to work and back last night, ran 100% fine, and held engine temp perfect. Today, drive it to the post office... the check engine light comes on and there's no heat at all, the temp guage held perfect temp, then got all the way cold. So I'm on my way to autozone to scan the code and...the car cut itself off.
I'm guessing that it went into overheat protection mode and the temp guage didn't read warm because there was no coolant and it was 20* outside? When I pour coolant in, it comes right out of the bottom of the engine. It's down by the timing cover, so I can't even really see exactly where it comes out of. I can crank the car and move it around fine, and haven't noticed any abnormalities on the top end of the engine. The radiator was totally cold.
I just changed the oil and the spark plugs last week. The oil is clean, no milkyness. The car only has white puffs of smoke on startup, like it does normally when really cold. Once it warms up, there's no smoke. Could the water pump have been frozen stuck, and trying to start the engine cause the pump shaft to break? Thus not circulating coolant, and potentially causing a leak? Would a leaking pump just seep out from the engine cover? Could it be a freeze plug if there wasn't enough antifreeze? Would a freeze plug go from a small leak to just letting go, or would it just pop out at once?
I'm thinking water pump or freeze plug... but I could be missing something.
I'm going to fix this myself, I've got a manual somewhere, where there's a will there's a way, Just need some diagnostic assistance. BTW... car has 201k on it.
Scenario:
2 days ago it gets down to 14* in GA. I'm not sure if I had enough antifreeze in my car. Upon cranking, I get a gnarly grinding sound 3 times in a row. I let the car sit and moved a hair dryer around on the engine for 2 hours. Started right up, but I noticed constant drip coolant leak. Drove the car to work and back last night, ran 100% fine, and held engine temp perfect. Today, drive it to the post office... the check engine light comes on and there's no heat at all, the temp guage held perfect temp, then got all the way cold. So I'm on my way to autozone to scan the code and...the car cut itself off.
I'm guessing that it went into overheat protection mode and the temp guage didn't read warm because there was no coolant and it was 20* outside? When I pour coolant in, it comes right out of the bottom of the engine. It's down by the timing cover, so I can't even really see exactly where it comes out of. I can crank the car and move it around fine, and haven't noticed any abnormalities on the top end of the engine. The radiator was totally cold.
I just changed the oil and the spark plugs last week. The oil is clean, no milkyness. The car only has white puffs of smoke on startup, like it does normally when really cold. Once it warms up, there's no smoke. Could the water pump have been frozen stuck, and trying to start the engine cause the pump shaft to break? Thus not circulating coolant, and potentially causing a leak? Would a leaking pump just seep out from the engine cover? Could it be a freeze plug if there wasn't enough antifreeze? Would a freeze plug go from a small leak to just letting go, or would it just pop out at once?
I'm thinking water pump or freeze plug... but I could be missing something.
I'm going to fix this myself, I've got a manual somewhere, where there's a will there's a way, Just need some diagnostic assistance. BTW... car has 201k on it.
Last edited by bigj01AE; 12-19-2010 at 02:18 PM. Reason: pics
12-14-2010, 03:57 PM
#2
you need to pin point the leak. if it was 14* out and you didnt have the proper antifreeze mixture it can cause the freeze plug to pop out, that's what there designed to do, saves the block from cracking. all in all though you need to find out exactly where that leak is coming from.
12-19-2010, 02:16 PM
#3
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 62
Alright... took some pics of the leakage. It's dripping at the front of the oil pan and appears to start somewhere rear of the alternator and inward of the serpentine belt tensioner. Thanks for the insight everyone.
Leakage
You can see the leak in the center of the pic, and yes.. I'm doing new belts and timing chain tensioner.
Also, the 4th gen waterpump write up on here is AWESOME! Is that applicable to the 5th Gens as well, and the Anniversary Edition engines? I would think so. Thanks.
Leakage
You can see the leak in the center of the pic, and yes.. I'm doing new belts and timing chain tensioner.
Also, the 4th gen waterpump write up on here is AWESOME! Is that applicable to the 5th Gens as well, and the Anniversary Edition engines? I would think so. Thanks.
Last edited by bigj01AE; 12-19-2010 at 02:25 PM.
12-20-2010, 05:20 PM
#5
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 62
Just found out its the freeze plug that went. It's the one that's behind the alternator and water pump, tucked up in there. I guess it's on the back of the head. Anyone got a diagram for freeze plug sizes? I found the old one, so I guess I could just size it to that.
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