So Shipo and I had a conversation a few months ago in a previous thread about possible reasons for a continuously empty coolant overflow reservoir bottle... something that makes us a wee bit uneasy seeing as overheating 3.3L/3.8L are really nasty things to deal with.
Anyway, last week I was changing my oil (Realized it had almost been 6,000 miles since my last change of Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5W-30 Synthetic). When I went to close the hood I looked at my coolant bottle which I had JUST filled two weeks ago. (I went to the dealer, made the mechanic tell me the SPECIFIC type of fluid needed, bought a gallon of it and filled the bottle.)
Well when I looked, the bottle was empty! Well, not empty, but the fluid level was way below the MIN line. So, remembering what Shipo said about how the van is probably consuming coolant through cracks in the block (and how there really is no fix), I just went to get my gallon bottle of coolant, and I filled it up again.
As soon as I was done pouring, I began to walk away and that's when I heard the sound of liquid leaking out onto the pavement at a very steady rate. I looked underneath the van and right in front of my face, saw this:
There goes my brand new coolant right spot onto the ground. It was a bittersweet moment because I was really happy to know where my coolant was going, and that it wasn't indeed being consumed in the engine, but it was bad at the same time because now I have a MAJOR leak to find and deal with.
Seeing as it was a cloudy day, 29 degrees and the lighting was bad, I tried my best to get some pictures of where the leak appeared to be coming from. But I'm still at a loss as to where it may be pouring out. Help!!!
This is what came out of aiming the digital camera up at the bottom of the van directly above the puddle of new, expensive, wasted coolant:
Is the bottle cracked? Or is the pipe FROM the bottle cracked? Or is the attachment point between the bottle and the pipe loose? I have no idea how to even go about figuring this out without paying to get access to a full vehicle lift which I don't have access to.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Anyway, last week I was changing my oil (Realized it had almost been 6,000 miles since my last change of Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5W-30 Synthetic). When I went to close the hood I looked at my coolant bottle which I had JUST filled two weeks ago. (I went to the dealer, made the mechanic tell me the SPECIFIC type of fluid needed, bought a gallon of it and filled the bottle.)
Well when I looked, the bottle was empty! Well, not empty, but the fluid level was way below the MIN line. So, remembering what Shipo said about how the van is probably consuming coolant through cracks in the block (and how there really is no fix), I just went to get my gallon bottle of coolant, and I filled it up again.
As soon as I was done pouring, I began to walk away and that's when I heard the sound of liquid leaking out onto the pavement at a very steady rate. I looked underneath the van and right in front of my face, saw this:
There goes my brand new coolant right spot onto the ground. It was a bittersweet moment because I was really happy to know where my coolant was going, and that it wasn't indeed being consumed in the engine, but it was bad at the same time because now I have a MAJOR leak to find and deal with.
Seeing as it was a cloudy day, 29 degrees and the lighting was bad, I tried my best to get some pictures of where the leak appeared to be coming from. But I'm still at a loss as to where it may be pouring out. Help!!!
This is what came out of aiming the digital camera up at the bottom of the van directly above the puddle of new, expensive, wasted coolant:
Is the bottle cracked? Or is the pipe FROM the bottle cracked? Or is the attachment point between the bottle and the pipe loose? I have no idea how to even go about figuring this out without paying to get access to a full vehicle lift which I don't have access to.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.