While I was backing my car out of the garage, I notice a puddle, about a 2 feet wide on the floor. I checked my coolant tank and it's a little below the min level. I also dipped a piece of white paper in the puddle and, it was "pinkish" so I'm pretty sure that it's coolant. Before I backed out, I let the car warm up (about 10 minutes) and there's no smoke or "coolant smell" from the engine compartment. I'm basing the smell on the green antifreeze. I have no clue on if the G-12 smells the same. The puddle was on the passenger side but that may have been where it leaked through the lower engine cover. I did a "lame" search on the furum and nothing really "jumped out at me". I'm about to pull the covers off and see what I can find. Any thoughts on where I should start??? This is on the 4.2, not the 2.7.

 

I'm not sure about the coolant leak, but I just read the manual to my 4.2, and it said to never let the car sit to warm up. You should be ready to drive it when you start it, to drive it easy till it warms up.

I let my car warm up once last week for awhile, and as I pulled out of the driveway the CEL went on. Now I need a new evap purge valve, or something that sounds like that.

 

Thanks. I normally don't let it warm up for that long. I was using the snowblower while the car was idling. I let it warm up for a several minutes anyway to allow the oil to circulate and I've never had any problems. My guess is, this leak happened ovenight. Playing around with it today, Its doesn't seem to leak when idling. It does leak when the car has cooled down.

 

do you have an auxiliary water pump under the intake like we do on the 2.7t? Ours tend to leak. Also the expansio tanks tend to discolor then crack, and leak.

 

No. I think they are for the turbos only. When I did the forum search, this was a "big hitter" and the first thing that I looked for.

 

Most likely the oil cooler seals on the block are leaking coolant. Warming up your car wont cause that to happen.

 

Did you ever solve your coolant leak? I am having the same problem. Dealer service looked at it and said that they couldn't fix it unless it was leaking when I brought it in. It leaks after a long trip (over an hour) and then the car sits for a while.

 

No. Mine is exactly the same. It's the strangest that I've ever seen. I can't believe that it's anything serious but it's irritating as hell. I took off covers and didn't see anything obvious. I kinda put it on hold because of the holidays but actually planned on taking it to the dealer. From what you are saying, I won't waste my time with them. On Wednesday morning, I'll give it my best shot starting with the oil cooler seals as "dankhound" suggested in an earlier post. My two oldest boys will be home to help me out with the crawling around under the car, etc.. If I find anything, I'll send you a message. Thanx for your info!!

 

Those seals pretty hard to replace. The cooler is bolted to the passenger side the block underneeth the engine mount. You need to remove the engine mount on that side to pull the cooler off. To do that youll have to support the engine. Once you get the cooler off youll be able to see wheter the cooler is leaking or just the seals. Usually its just the seals but sometimes the cooler itself is leaking.

 

Thanks!!