leaking coolant

[dcrisafulli]

I have a 99 alero, leaking coolant. Any suggestions. It is aftyer you shut the engine off. The car does not overheat.

Doug

[jamcllw]

What engine?

[dcrisafulli]

3400

[jamcllw]

How bad is it and which side of the engine is it coming from? Could it be happening when yur driving you just don't notice it. A very common problem with the 3400 is the lower intake manifold gasket. Check your oil for a white milky substance and check your coolant to see if it is really dark like oil has mixed with it.

[JTrujillo86]

You could also pull the oxygen sensor and see if there is a white crust on it...that would mean that coolant is leaking into the combustion chamber.

Jeremy

[dcrisafulli]

It looks like it the hose to the heater that is leaking the coolant.

I am breaking down and sending it to the shop on Monday.

[dcrisafulli]

After i stop the car I can see the coolant leaking. It looks like it is coming from the hose that goes to the heater. Is that common?

It is in the rear side of the engine on the passenger side, it does not look like it is coming from the engine block though. The lower intake manifold common leak is where on the car. The front or back?

Also can I easily see coolant in the oil from the dipstick and would I see oil in the overflow tank on the radiator? Because I do not

Thanks so much for all of your help.

Doug

[Ridenour]

If you want to look for your LIM leak externally, a good place to start is the area under the throttle body. If you have coolant running down or even worse, pooled up, you probably have an external LIM leak.

No, you probably wouldn't see coolant in your oil just by using the dipstick. You need to (wait till your engine's cool) open the oil cap, look at the bottom of the cap. If it's milky white, coolant's mixed in. Shine a flashlight in there too and look at the pooled oil and check the color of that. Make sure it doesn't look like there's any coolant mixed in. and no you probably wouldn't see the oil in the resevoir

From what you're saying though, it's not a LIM leak, just sounds like a bad heater core hose, which is a hell of a lot easier to fix then a leaking lower intake manifold gasket. good luck

[dcrisafulli]

It turned out to be a bad Water Pump. Just $130.00, got off lucky.

I appreciate all of your assistance. This forum was very helpful.

I fixed my antenna, Cruise Control and turned off the unnecessary change oil light

Thanks,
Doug