HI guys. I'm looking to locate an antifreeze leak which does not (appear) to be coming from a hose. With engine running I see loads dripping from the passenger end of the engine as I peer under from behind the front pass. tire but can't pin it to any visible hose. Being the eternal pessimist I am worried about the block. Does this engine have a freeze plug near that side of the block? Thanks for any and all replies.
Jim.

 

I don't know about the freeze plugs.

There are some coolant hoses that go the throttle body. I would probably rent a radiator pressure tester at a parts store. It is pretty much a bicycle tire pump that has an adapter you put in place of the radiator cap. A sealed system should hold around 1 atmosphere (15 psi).

You could pressurize the system, then try to find the coolant leak. Either coolant or air should come out. You may want to clean up as much coolant as you can to try to find the leak.

 

I've seen some UV Dye kits that are pretty inexpensive... with the pressure tester you should be able to find the source if not the dye (and light) should help.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I am truly hoping that this is a hose and nothing further as this (as is most any other time) is an especially inconvenient time to have a costly auto repair bill.

 

Good luck, let us know what you find....also if you can post any pic's of the source, it might help someone else in the future that come across the same issue.

 

Here's a couple pictures that might help...

 

Well guys this leak is fixed with a complete hose replacement job. Not sure which hose exactly may have been culprit but it's safe to assume an 10 yr. old vehicle could do with all hoses replaced. I'm just glad hoses did the trick. For the coolant leak anyway... Also had a messy oil leak on both ends of the block which ran my bill to $950. Gasket replaced on the timing belt/water pump end and, turns out your distributor shaft has a seal which can fail and cause leakage through it necessitating a new distributor!!!! One more bullet to bite. Here's hoping for a good 75k more miles before any issues rear their ugly heads. Nah, timing belt will need replacement by then no doubt. Murphy was an optimist.

 

I haven't done this, but some people around here have replaced that seal inside the distributor. Search around...

That distributor leak... is the oil inside the distributor or is it running down the head?