So my dad has been using about a gallon of coolant a week, and he took it to the dealer and they said there were "no visible leaks" and recommended a head gasket job...... no coolant leak-down test or nothing apparently judging by the work order,,, He's been bleeding money for this car for years after I told him to get rid of it like 6 years ago, and this was finally the last straw for him. After he saw a $4,000+ bill for a head gasket and timing belt (they didn't know he already got it done somewhere else recently, so they just assumed), he caved and just gave the car to me because there is almost no significant resale value in it at this point especially with a blown head gasket. So me not believing the dealer after past bad experiencing he had with them that I had to clear up, I took it home and performed a leak down check. Sure enough after pressurizing the overflow to 15psi I see coolant dripping near the front of the motor and onto the ground at about a drip every 2 seconds, so pretty significant. I know there are flanges that are common leak spots but when I went to look underneath and from up top I could not locate the source. It is dripping down from in between the AC compressor and the oil pan coming off the pan bolts and also the ac compressor(pics included, wet spots are basically the coolant pretty much). Is there a common cause for a leak in this area that anyone knows about? Is it possible or likely it is the actual head gasket like they said and is causing coolant to leak externally?? Car also only has like 120k miles on it and never overheated before according to my dad. I have some pictures of around where the leak is. Hoping someone has seen this before or can offer some advice/tips. TIA!!!!

 

theres the oil filter housing in that area and it acts as a oil cooler also has coolant running through it. If the coolant seal is bad then it could cause this

 

So my coolant has been leaking for months now. It started with every 2 days I would have to fill up the coolant reservoir and so I decided maybe the reservoir tank is cracked and that's easy enough for even a 25 year old girl like me to do, so I replaced it with a brand new one. Even made sure my dad checked to make sure I did it right just in case. And now since I replaced the reservoir it leaks even worse now, I can drive like maybe 5-10 miles before the coolant light/ sensor comes on. What should I check or look for to try and see what the problem is? Because being a girl I know mechanics Speed Test will try and get me to pay as much as possible and overcharge me and I really don't need or want that to happen. Please help!!! Any advice or opinions are appreciated

 

The absolute easiest thing to do would be to rent a coolant system pressure test kit from autozone (should be free too) or other local parts spot that rents them. You need to pressurize the system in order to simulate it in a driving condition (it puts pressure on the system by connecting to the reservoir), because for me just letting the car idle wasn’t good enough. Once you pump up the system with the kit you can look around/under the engine compartment to check for any external leaks. Leave it pressurized for a bit if you don’t see anything apparent dripping immediately. If you unfortunately don’t see anything after a while then the next step would be to see if you have a head gasket leak which would be inside the motor and you wont actually be able to see it, and would require more in depth diagnostics.

I hear ya on the “being a girl goin to a mechanic” situation and completely understand, but to be honest a lot of ‘mechanics’ these days are a bunch of idiots also. While it may seem like they are trying to pull one over, it’s sometimes really just them misdiagnosing because they don’t have the skill set and knowledge these days that mechanics used to back in the day. My car was brought in to an Audi dealer with $165/hr labor rate and said it needed a head gasket job for my coolant leak without even bothering to do the 15 minute pressure test that I did at home for free, and I ended up fixing my issue for like $3 lol. I have almost no faith in mechanics anymore and is why I generally try and do all my own work, it’s sad lol.