Mercury 2004 Coolant leak

[ropar]

Hello,
I have a 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis. Car has less then 78K on it.

Past few weeks I noticed the engine fan was blowing pretty strong. Took it to an auto repair shop, they noticed fluid was a little low, topped it off. They seemed to indicate it was fine.

Well within 2-3 weeks fan was blowing pretty strong again. This time I noticed the transmission was slipping to a higher gear too soon. That happened several times. Went back to the repair shop, had them check fluid on both transmission and coolant. Transmission fluid was good (and clean), coolant was down significantly. They recommended a pressure test on the radiator. Made sense - that was done this past Tuesday. Radiator was fine.

Mechanic suggested the engine manifold was cracked. Ford made them out of plastic. Very expensive, about 1000$ to repair. He asked if there were any leaks, I responded no, didn't see any. No leaks on the ground, nothing.

One other comment, the car exhaust would create a noise (almost a rattle) when driving through the park around an extended curve. Just didn't care for the noise coming from the engine area. Not consistent but frequent enough to notice. Don't know if that's related.

Two major problems on this car all within about 2 weeks - it's just not worth it. Shame, car has a good ride to it. And except for this, was very reliable.

My questions are:
1. Is there any chance the engine overheating would contribute to the transmission slipping?

2. Is there anything else that would contribute to this leak?

Right now I drive the car back and forth to work, also looking at new cars with it. Going easy on the car, 30-45 MPH, that's it. No transmission issue now. They doesn't mean a thing.

Any comments or related URLs would be appreciated. Thanks.

[aleekat]

1. Did you overheat the engine?
2. If you are losing coolant, it's going somewhere. Any oil in the coolant or vice versa?

[ropar]

1. Was engine overheating >>Looking at the gauge, it was not. But the engine fan was blowing a lot than I had experienced.

2. Where was coolant going? Have no idea...