mystery leak!

[miami3000gt]

i need to get this leak fixed, today for the first time white smoke came out of my cars exaust and i think its cuz of the coolant leak i have

i need some help as to how do i check the level and control this leak and actually find the root and cause of the leak to see wut i can do to fix it....

here is a picture i took the leak as u can see rolls from the tranny down into a small gathering this is after i cleaned it the red lines indicate were the drops roll down alot of em

question can it be from those 2 tubes coming down?
that big cable is electrical right not liquid?
i doubt the leak comes from back there and keeps rolling down, since back there its dry(well from what i can touch)



so that u can get a perspective of where the pic was taken (bottom arrow)

i think the leak might be coming from under where the second arrow is and then dropping down there (i have no idea just another guees)

this is a picture of my engine - clean at least



i need some help badly

thanks in advance

[AutostradaVR4]

if the smoke is coming from your exhaust than its getting in your combustion chamber...or possibly turbo? I would bet on a small head gasket leak, which will only get worse and do very bad things if you dont take care of it promptly. Not terribly expensive, but for a novice, it will take some time.

[Linebckr49]

Originally Posted by BlinkRA182

if the smoke is coming from your exhaust than its getting in your combustion chamber...or possibly turbo? I would bet on a small head gasket leak, which will only get worse and do very bad things if you dont take care of it promptly. Not terribly expensive, but for a novice, it will take some time.

he's got an NA. and its an ATX.

that white dried liquid looks like burnt coolant, i think. someone else will chime in. the water neck (where you fill the system with coolant) is right near there. there are several hoses coming out of the water neck, so that area is a possibility for the leak. the two vertical rubber hoses are for the fluid in your ATX, i believe. atx fluid is red, so that leads me to believe your leak is not transmission related.

[talskinyguy]

Maybe you got white smoke because its cold out and you had water in your exhaust due to condensation.

[miami3000gt]

Originally Posted by talskinyguy

Maybe you got white smoke because its cold out and you had water in your exhaust due to condensation.

maybe but i wana get this leak under control.

my questions is where do i check the coolant level and should i add if low?

is it that white tank in the left bottom corner?

[Linebckr49]

the white tank is the coolant overflow tank. check ur level of coolant at the water neck (looks like radiator cap to the left of the engine). when adding more coolant, you can squeeze the radiator hoses to help the coolant go down into the radiator, and to allow room for more at the water neck. the coolant level should be topped off.

[Igovert500]

Sounds like 2 leaks. 1 leak is letting coolant into combustion chamber (probably headgasket, unless it is what talskinyguy mentioned) 2 is leaking onto your transmission.

For #1, are you continuing to get white smoke out of the exhaust? Are you sure it's white and not blue? Drain your oil, does it have excessive bubbles? Does it look like a milkshake? Is there oil floating on top of your coolant in the radiator? If so, probably a headgasket leak.

#2 flush your radiator and find the leak when the hose is pressurizing the system.

Also with these leaks, be very careful. I wouldn't drive it, but if you must, keep an eye on your coolant level and your temp gauge at all times.

[miami3000gt]

Originally Posted by Igovert500

Sounds like 2 leaks. 1 leak is letting coolant into combustion chamber (probably headgasket, unless it is what talskinyguy mentioned) 2 is leaking onto your transmission.

For #1, are you continuing to get white smoke out of the exhaust? Are you sure it's white and not blue? Drain your oil, does it have excessive bubbles? Does it look like a milkshake? Is there oil floating on top of your coolant in the radiator? If so, probably a headgasket leak.

#2 flush your radiator and find the leak when the hose is pressurizing the system.

Also with these leaks, be very careful. I wouldn't drive it, but if you must, keep an eye on your coolant level and your temp gauge at all times.

ok i have checked and im relived after 2 - 3 mintues of idle the white smoke stopped i think there was white smoke because of all the rain that dropped yesterday night(miami weather sucks)

so it cant be a head gasket right?

also i might have found the source of the leak ill try to get a pic asap

[Igovert500]

Still check the oil and coolant.

[miami3000gt]

my coolant level is by the full marker (its not supposed to be topped off right?)
my oil is new (1 week ago)

i may have found the source of this small leak i was touching around and then under here my fingers got wet i coulnt tell if it was the same but it had to be since it was right ontop of where the leak rolls down

this first pic is from the front as u can see the leak seems to be coming from where the bolts are there might be a gasket there(u cant even tell)



here is a picture from the top looking down as u can see it macthes the same spot were the leak rolls down

im not sure if this is the cause i first need to know wut passes in there



anyone got any info if this might be were the leak is coming from?

[Igovert500]

First don't assume anything about your oil. Alot can happen in a week. ALOT. It takes 2 seconds to spin a bearing. It doesn't take much longer to get contaminated with fuel or coolant. Check what it looks like. Does it have bubbles, milky like substance, etc. Be sure, be safe.

As far as the pics, I'm having a hard time seeing much due to the blurryness. Can you tell if it's oil, tranny fluid or coolant? Coolant is usually green, oil is oil, tranny fluid is usually red/pinkish with a kinda sweet scent...unless it is burned and which case it smells rancid!

[92VR4Red]

Im not sure about the N/A cars... But I do know the VR4s Trottle body is water cooled. It could be that mabey when changing sparkplugs or somthing else caused it to crack, it could explain external leaking and also cause water to flow in your intake and get into the heads and combustion chamber. Mabey this is it? as for level of coolant... just take the cap off (when car is off) and fill it untill its full (when car is running), it will blow some by the cap into overflow when you put the cap back on, but thats ok.

[miami3000gt]

Originally Posted by Igovert500

First don't assume anything about your oil. Alot can happen in a week. ALOT. It takes 2 seconds to spin a bearing. It doesn't take much longer to get contaminated with fuel or coolant. Check what it looks like. Does it have bubbles, milky like substance, etc. Be sure, be safe.

As far as the pics, I'm having a hard time seeing much due to the blurryness. Can you tell if it's oil, tranny fluid or coolant? Coolant is usually green, oil is oil, tranny fluid is usually red/pinkish with a kinda sweet scent...unless it is burned and which case it smells rancid!

how do i check the oil? im not gona drain my oil lol its brand new

as for the fluid its either coolant/antifrezze or water

im going to check again tommorow

as for putting more coolant i didnt understand that lol

[Igovert500]

Do a compression test.

You could check your oil by removing the oil cap and looking for milky substance on the cap, or dipstick. But in all reality, and I don't mean any offense by this, but it's oil. It's cheap. I just dumped $45 worth of Synthetic 20w50 and a brand new oil filter after 2 miles because it got contaminated by gas. I dumped 16-20 quarts of oil over only 195 miles, fixing my last problem, because I'd sure rather dump 4qts of oil than fix a spun bearing. You got a 3000gt, it isn't a cheap car to own, don't be a cheap owner.

As far as filling coolant. He said take the radiator cap off when teh car is off, turn it on and pour coolant in. When it is full when the engine is on and warm, you are good. Some may overflow into the white overflow tank...that is ok. Put cap back on. Repeat when necessary.

[Twizted_3KGT]

Originally Posted by miami3000gt

my coolant level is by the full marker (its not supposed to be topped off right?)
my oil is new (1 week ago)

i may have found the source of this small leak i was touching around and then under here my fingers got wet i coulnt tell if it was the same but it had to be since it was right ontop of where the leak rolls down

this first pic is from the front as u can see the leak seems to be coming from where the bolts are there might be a gasket there(u cant even tell)



here is a picture from the top looking down as u can see it macthes the same spot were the leak rolls down

im not sure if this is the cause i first need to know wut passes in there



anyone got any info if this might be were the leak is coming from?

In that last pic, the arrow is pointing to the thermostat housing, it has a gasket which very well could be leaking. But right behind that is the coolant "router" (idk its name) which a bunch of hoses come off of which could be leaking coolant.