wildcardtrd

I've got a fairly nasty coolant leak...the coolant resevior is dry after 2 days of driving, consistently. I've checked my oil, no water in there...I'm not blowing smoke out of the exhaust, and there are no visible leaks that I can see on the outside of the engine, hoses, or radiator. Every once in a while, it looks like there is some liquid splashed onto the top of the subframe directly in front of the crank pulley, but I can't find where it could possibly be comming from. Any ideas? I have not climbed under the car yet to look from down there...
the car currently has 74000 miles on it.

AssassinJN

Put a piece of card board under your car when you park tonight (a big piece that spreads as much of the engine area as possible. This way you can see if any is dripping (if you can't already where you park). Did it start the same time you just got done with your ITBs? If so I'd start checking any of those lines that relate to the coolant.

nnkfws333

I would check 2 things as well. It could be from the water pump or your heater core.

Normally on your water pump you have a hole on it (I normally call it the piss hole) and when running it will leak out of or piss out of it. You will only see it when its running though.

Ive had a leaky heater core and it leaked into my car and totally had wet carpet under the passenger side carpet. I doubt it's the heater core but I have more confidence its your water pump.

Im just throwing these suggestions up since Ive had these problems before on my older Nissans. Good luck!

RadioZero

definitly sounds like a water pump. when you check, make sure the car is up to temp with the engine running.

Hockey

Feel the foam insulation between the radiator and the cross-member across the top of the rad. When my OEM rad died, it blew the seal between the cooling element and the plastic top of the rad core. The foam would soak up the small leak and then it would evaporate from there, never really dripping to the ground. This is a "typical" failure spot (also happened on my '94 Integra) and cannot be welded/fixed.

Anyway, I couldn't find the leak either. However I did notice coolant had sprayed up onto each front corner of the bottom side of the hood. Also had the smell of coolant coming through the vents.

Something to check........

-Hockey

wildcardtrd

Thanks guys...I'm going to place my money on the water pump...it won't leak out at all if the engine isn't running, but I just got home from class (20 min drive), and 1/2 my resevoir was drained...I climbed underneath the car, and there is alot of wet surfaces on the driver's side. I'm going to let it dry some, put the car up on ramps, and let it run while I watch from underneath. I'll let you guys know what I find.
BTW, what's the average service life of the water pump on our cars?

AssassinJN

Oh man, I test drove an suv with my father almost 10 years ago and while we were just driving it around it started dumping coolant all over the interior. That was some crazy sssshtuff.

Greenlight

If the water pump is leaking from the "weep hole" (which is the most likely place) there will be witness marks on the pump showing evidence that coolant was leaking. The same "witness" marks would apply an other areas of the leak (radiator, thermostat housing, etc.).

If you don't see "witness" marks, the likely culprit is that coolant is getting into a/some cylinder(s) and is going out the exhaust. The engine could lose small amounts (2 or 3 cc's per mile driven) and not show any obvious signs of smoke from the tailpipe. This minor leakage may not show up in a compression test, but it will eventually get worse.

If you remove the spark plugs and look carefully at the top of each piston, the cylinder that is getting water into it will appear clean and lacking the usual carbon deposits on it.

I hope that this is not your problem and that you find something simple, but if it is, it's better to catch it now and repair it before water starts mixing with the engine oil. Once it starts mixing with the engine oil it could cause bearing failure which is a BIG problem.

jeggy

uv dye

iam7head

do a pressure test on the cooling system, they sell the pressure gauge and fitting.

pump the to 1.1 bar and see if it will hold pressure for 5 min. if you have a leak, it will show