I think I have a coolant leak, what are common places that it leaks at?

 

What would make you think you had a coolant leak it could be a number of places maybe one of the radiator hoses or thermostat housing or where the water pump bolts to the block if you are losing coolant and cant find the leak you may have a blown head gasket does white smoke come out of the exhaust?

 

I had a friend look at it, there are no puddles of coolant in the engine compartment so we think it is the head gasket. The level of coolant in the overflow tank goes down about an inch a day. There is no smoke in the exaust whatsoever, water pump is fine, thermostat gasket is fine.

 

check the radiator, mine would leak from there and most of the coolant would just evaporate from it being hot

 

you might be leaking coolant out of the intake gaskets. you could have to coolant run down where the pushrods are down into you oil

i apologize for the horrible description . but i cant remember the name of that section right underneath the intake manifold

 

wouldn't that make the oil look all milky? the oil is normal so I don't think its that...
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We looked at the radiator as well, its not leaking, evaporating, maybe...

 

yes it would make your oil a different color.
so thats out of the question.

your best bet honestly is to pressure test the system.


block off the coolant return line that goes to the resivoir.

and get an adapter that fits the radiator and pressurize the system to 15 psi and let it sit. if you dont see any coolant anywhere let the car sit for 10 minutes and see if you get a pressure drop.
if its a significant drop then you have issues....

call me crazy but.. now that i think about it...
im not exactly sure how the transmission cooler is routed inside the radiator.
but could it be that you are having coolant in your trans???

im not exactly sure once again but its worth a shot

 

What color should the tranny fluid be on the dipstick?

 

red..not pink..pink you got water in the tranny

 

hey even check under ur passnger floor mat for a leak cause when my heater core went no one knew till i was cleaning the car and took out the floor mat and found a nice big green puddle under there

 

There is no floor mat, I just have base carpet...

 

Uh, mine is pretty pink... I take it thats not good. Besides changing my fluid, how do i stop this from happening again?

 

if you have pink tranny fluid you most likely have a bad radiator . fluid is routed to a chamber inside the radiator for cooling . i suspect that is where your leak is . below radiator cap you will see 2 lines with threaded fittings , dis-connect fittings and move aside . if water starts coming out there is your problem . if no water , remove rad. cap , plug one hole and apply low press air to other hole , if you see air bubbles in radiator there is your problem . bad radiator , replace . good luck .