Antifreeze / coolant leak... GRRRRRR!!!!

okay.

A week ago my PS pump high pressure hose blew out. My Local mechanic replaced it but needed to remove the radiator.

2 days after completion, I actually overheated. Fast enough for me to notice and pull over. There was no coolant present.

We crawl it back to the shop which was 1/2 a mile away, and poured coolant. Everything seemed fine. I proceeded to drive out to my family. 32 Miles, 1 hour, highway @ 60mph. Watching the guage like a hawk.

I arrived safely. No ado. Comforted. Went to bed.

This morning, I ran an errand 2 miles away, and noticed there was a spatter under the car. It was quite bad. I made sure it was dripping when I got home, true enough. Antifreeze.

I cannot track where this is leaking from. sourced the trickle, noticed there was a pool of antifreeze under the plenum / intake manifold. saw the pool overflowing but not the actual source. I tilted the vx forward, and flushed it out with water. let it dry. checked the main giant hoses, all seemed fine.

here are additional info:
The leak is not fast enough to drain the reserve tank. I lose about 3mm worth of antifreeze.

I overfilled the reserve tank a little past the line. 3mm more or so.

I used the prestone brand.

Im trying to determine if this is the mechanics' error or just unfortunate timing. Please instrust me what to look for and where exactly its located.

My Thanks in Advance.

I had a similar leak and it was a pin hole in the hose. Would not leak when setting and cool...when running and hot would ooze a small amount and would build up in the crevases at the front of the intake.

Are you sure you still have a leak, or is it possible the leakage you've been seeing isn't coolant that had puddled on your intake during the original overheating? Maybe it sprayed past your radiator cap and got all over your engine compartment?

If you think you have an actual current leak, dry everything off as good as possible (with compressed air if available), then top off the coolant in the radiator.

(Make sure the coolant in the reservoir is at the Max level line, but the coolant in the radiator is the most important level to watch.)

Once the radiator coolant is topped off, start the engine and leave it running until the engine is warm enough that the thermostat opens. (Upper radiator hose should get hot).

Once the thermostat opens, see what the coolant level in the radiator does. If it drops, add more coolant until the level is about an inch down from the radiator cap opening, then continue watching for leaks all around the engine.

I'm wondering if there may have been an air pocket in the coolant passages when the radiator was reinstalled and the system was refilled during the original PS pump repair, and that air pocket resulted in a low coolant level and the subsequent overheating.

If the overheating was unrelated though, and the engine got hot enough, I'd first suspect the intake manifold gaskets since they're known to cause problems because of incorrect torque values during initial factory assembly.

Seems a little too coincidental that the overheating would occur two days after another unrelated repair had taken place though.

Q: which / what hoses should i be looking at?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZeroSix

Q: which / what hoses should i be looking at?

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For determining when the thermostat has opened - both hoses going to the radiator, although I'd say it would probably be the one going to the top of the radiator that would get hot once the thermostat opened.

For determining where a leak may be occurring - all of them.

Okay. there are two big hoses for the engine. I see two small ones at the bottom, is that it?

Small ones at bottom are transmission cooler lines. The only ones that carry antifreeze are the two large ones.

Really? Antifreeze softlines are only the two gigantic hose lines from the engine to the rad? And the line from the reservoir? How about along the engine?

so. to save me from my headache. I can just replace the two big hoses and clamps?

There are other hoses that carry coolant as well -
Small hoses under the intake manifold and the heater hoses.

If you were not having trouble before the mechanic played with it, it really does sound like the mechanic has not put something back right.
Tooo much of a coincidence otherwise.

The other option has also been mentioned above - if the mechanic didn't fill it and run it, then top it up, you could have had an airlock that caused your original overheating.
After that overheating, it could have developed a leak anywhere.
If you saw coolant on top of the motor, there are a couple of small hoses hidden under the intake manifold, and also some o-ring seals that could have been damaged by the overheating.

Hard to tell what is wrong without seeing it.
It might be worth going to a cooling specialist and getting a pressure test done. That will prove if it is leaking, and give you a good chance of finding out where.

Good luck.

PK

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZeroSix

Really? Antifreeze softlines are only the two gigantic hose lines from the engine to the rad? And the line from the reservoir? How about along the engine?

so. to save me from my headache. I can just replace the two big hoses and clamps?

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If you download the repair manual from this site, you can view the cooling lines and their locations on the engine for yourself. And replacing the two big hoses may or may not save you any headaches. If you replace them and they're not actually in need of replacement, you've still got a headache.

At this point, I'd suggest taking it back to the guy who did your power steering work and telling him to fix the problem he created...or at least giving him the chance to...because if he wasn't thorough enough to make sure the cooling system was refilled properly, you might actually be better off looking for a second opinion. And I suggest that because I'm getting the impression you're not necessarily well-versed in automotive repair yourself. Finding the main radiator hoses is fairly basic stuff, and if those aren't familiar to you, talking you through replacing the intake area coolant hoses would be no simple process either. Nothing personal, but if you're not somewhat knowledgeable with that kind of stuff, you may end up creating more problems than you fix trying to do a project like an intake cooling hose repair, just like it seems your mechanic may have done.

Ok. Cleaned everything. Observe. If leaking. Take it back to guy.

Hmmm.... I think he was suspecting it was a line under the plenum.
I suspect there was no coolant when he put the rad back. Causing it to overheat. Damaging the hose.

Okay.

Finally had the time taking it apart. Here is a pic of the problem

[IMG]http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...m/IMG_0881.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...m/IMG_0884.jpg[/IMG]
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...m/IMG_0888.jpg
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...m/IMG_0886.jpg

If you see those two metal nipples above the thermostat; the rubber hoses just disintegrated. I cannot seem to find a part number for these.

My question is:

are all radiator / coolant hoses generic? i can just cut them to size? (Finding ones prebent is hard)
What else should be changed while I am here?

Its saturday and st charles Isuzu is closed. I need help knowing what these are called in hopes of finding one sooner
So far I have new gaskets, The thermostat, fuel filter, PCV on deck. Cleaning the plenum is in order too.

Update: looked at the parts list; The coolant hoses part was cut-off on the scan.

Bump: No help in identifying them hoses?

don't remember what they were called, but picked them up at Autozone when did mine, they had pics of them on their computer also.