When I first got my car is would leak antifreeze on occassion... I finally had it looked at and they decided I needed a new radiator cap. The problem went away. Now all the sudden it started today. I noticed a puddle underneith my car at school and when I stopped in to work I noticed antifreeze was running out the bottom. I got it home and it quit leaking. Now I can't get it to leak again. The hoses are not wet and they're tight with no cracks. The only thing that is wet it the radiator support. Does anyone know why my car does this?

 

It can't leak if there is no coolant in it. Refill and monitor the system. The leak should become apparent. It probably didn't repair itself.

 

I checked- the radiator was still full of fluid, so it wasn't leaking for very long. THat's why I'm confused. Obviously it didn't repair itself so that's why I'm wondering what's wrong.

 

Man thats spooky. Check the base of the radiator around the support for any corrosion spots and water buildup, possibly the leak is actually comming from around the engine block perhaps the water pump area.

 

It could be from a ton of different areas, but the one area that was leaking on mine once was where the Plastic Side Tanks for radiator were crimped to the actual radiator core. Since the mat'ls are different, metal vs plastic and it is seeing hundreds of heat cycles you can develop leaks along this mating surface. The other thing that stinks is you almost have to pull the darn thing out of the car to check for the leak.

The nice thing is if your radiator is in okay shape most radiator shops can replace a side tank for less than the cost of a new radiator, plus while they're at it you can have them really clean the core out and check everything else over. I've owned my car about ten years and I've had to replace a side tank twice. For me it cost about 100 bucks each time.

Like I said I've had little hard to find leaks all over the engine bay on this thing, but since you said the rad. support was the area that was wet I'm guessing side tanks. Good luck

 

get a preasure tester
Pump her up
look for the leak

 

sounds like its your radiator. if you cant get ahold of a pressure tester just take the car for a drive get it running at normal temp then park it and wait a bit she should leak then if she doesnt leak while you drive it. if not get a good flash light and look, youll find the leak.

 

aight, thanks for the tips guys... now I have an idea of where to go from here.