Ok heres the deal, about 1 week ago I bought a 98 lumina with 122K on it. There were no signs of leaks or anything at all.
Fastforward to today, I go to check my tranny fluid when I open the hood theres brownish fluid on the left passenger side of the hood. It looks as if the belt (thats attached to the engine) flung it there.
SO.... One thing leads to another and I clean it up and decide to take it for a decent drive seeing that coolant level was fine. I took a 1 hr trip on the highway and stop and go traffic and the fluid did not re-appear.
I open up my coolant resevoir and its the same exact viscosity (if thats what you want to call it) and color. Therefore im 100% sure what I had found earlier was drops of coolant.
Now heres my question. Whats more likely wrong? Theres no overheating and the car runs super smooth. It also doesnt appear ive lost much to any coolant despite it obviously being the same stuff.
I bought this car last week and have little to no money. I saw on another forum that it could possible be the water pump (cheap fix I can do myself).
Or it can me the lower intake manifold (dont have the tools or knowledge to figure that part out).
The coolant in the resevoir has a rusty look to it. I dont believe its oil or even tranny fluid as it would not appear mixed in like this.
Any suggestions offered would be great. This is my first car and im a student so this has me worried crapless! All fluid levels are under constant check to make sure I dont overheat or anything.