Leaking Coolant like crazy
gstnewb
02-20-2006, 08:12 PM
I was driving my 90 Eclipse gs-t today, going from paint shop to paint shop to get an estimate for some new paint for the car and suddenly I see some steam coming from under the hood of my car. I am talking about a little, nothing major. I open the hood and there is a fairly large amount of coolant spread around as a lot of the hoses and lines are wet. On the ground there was already a small (5" diamter) puddle of coolant. It is green and it smelled like coolant so I am sure it's coolant. I let the car cool down for a few minutes and started driving it very gently to get home. Luckily I was only 2 miles from home and I had to take this empty expressway so I just got the car to 45 mph, put it in neutral and turned the engine off whenever on downhill. I got home without any problems and my temp gauge never went past the middle position, which is its normal position. I guess I caught while it's not too late.
I looked at all the hoses and they seem to be fine. Where could it be leaking/spraying so hard from?? I am planning on taking all the hoses, air filter box, turbo hoses, and everything else that can be taken out to clear as much area as possible. After that I will start inspecting everything and put in only the parts that are in good condition and replace everything else with brand new parts.
I just want to ask you guys for any advice, opinion, or suggestions on the whole mystery of this leak. Where do you think it could be coming from? Even the trubo has some antifreeze on it, as it was sizzling on top of it. Weird. Any help is appreciated.
I looked at all the hoses and they seem to be fine. Where could it be leaking/spraying so hard from?? I am planning on taking all the hoses, air filter box, turbo hoses, and everything else that can be taken out to clear as much area as possible. After that I will start inspecting everything and put in only the parts that are in good condition and replace everything else with brand new parts.
I just want to ask you guys for any advice, opinion, or suggestions on the whole mystery of this leak. Where do you think it could be coming from? Even the trubo has some antifreeze on it, as it was sizzling on top of it. Weird. Any help is appreciated.
l_eclipse_l
02-20-2006, 09:12 PM
Radiator cap could have failed? Have you ever replaced any of the coolant hoses? Were you driving it hard? Yeah just pull everything apart, flush the system, and put everything together nice and snug and see if it happens again. Replace the cap while your at it.
gstnewb
02-20-2006, 11:28 PM
It's not the cap, definetely not. It's dry and everything around it.
I have been driving the car rather harsh but nothing above 5.5k rpm and that's maybe up to 5 times a day, if that. I was timing the 0-60 mph acceleration of the car last night and had to get the rpm pretty high but i didn't go higher than 6k. The car did 6.71 seconds 0-60 mph by the way :). I really hope it's just a hose and nothing major but it shouldn't be. The car hasn't seen any abuse and has never been redlined or anything even close to that. I will take everything apart on Friday. Any other advices please feel free to share.
I have been driving the car rather harsh but nothing above 5.5k rpm and that's maybe up to 5 times a day, if that. I was timing the 0-60 mph acceleration of the car last night and had to get the rpm pretty high but i didn't go higher than 6k. The car did 6.71 seconds 0-60 mph by the way :). I really hope it's just a hose and nothing major but it shouldn't be. The car hasn't seen any abuse and has never been redlined or anything even close to that. I will take everything apart on Friday. Any other advices please feel free to share.
gthompson97
02-21-2006, 07:35 AM
Fill it up with coolant again, start up the car and see if you can tell where it's coming from. There has to be a leak somewhere.
crunchymilk55
02-21-2006, 02:50 PM
There's a lot of old rubber lines that connect the coolant lines. There's a bunch of L-shaped lines by the turbo especially that usually break. Refill, start the car with someone in it to make sure it doesn't get hot, and find the leak, replace the part. In my experience, regular coolant hoses from autozone or whatever can't make the right bends without either crimping or tearing eventually, I bought the mitsu hoses, they're the only ones that worked for me.
ez1286
02-21-2006, 08:45 PM
The coolant system is under pressure when at temp. so even a small hole could leak a lot really fast and spray all over the place.
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