Alright guys i need help. When i stop my car sometimes i will come back with a puddle of coolant on the ground. i have found out that it is coming from the overflow hose connected right at the base of the neck on the overflow tank. It only happens sometimes and have no idea what the cause could be? any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

First things first. You need to find out why your recovery tank is filling up and not returning to the coolant system. Your recovery tank should be no lower than the low level when cold (this allows the recovery tank to fill without over flowing when hot) if the motor has not been overheated and doesn't have enough miles on it to be coolant seal failure then check your caps (if old replace them) and get a system pressure tester to make sure the rest of it is ok (no pin hole leaks in a hose).

 

^^^^^

But, before you do any of the above, check the coolant level in your overflow tank while the engine is cold. It may simply be overfilled, causing the coolant to overflow from the tank, causing the puddle.

Dave

 

If it's coming out on the ground would it not be correct to think it's already over filled ? If he has been adding coolant to the recovery tank instead of the cooling system then that would explain having too much in there to begin with. If he hasn't been adding coolant to the recovery tank then the only place it can be coming from is the system and if it's not drawing it back then it will definitely be over filled again. I would also believe that if the recovery tank is over full he's been adding coolant to the main system but just didn't mention it. There's only two ways the recovery tank gets over filled.

 

I wasn't disagreeing with you. I just wanted to point out that it could be simply overfilled. There have been threads in the past about missing fill-level indicators, and people just assuming that the O-F tank needed to be filled to near the top, instead of 6" from the top. I guess I was not specific enough. Sorry.

Dave

 

My car would do the same thing, but it hasn't done it for a while so I am guessing it was just over filled, and it finally got rid of enough coolant to not overflow anymore. I don't have any cooling issues eiter. I wouldn't be too worried about it.

 

Hey Dave,
No need for apology's, sometimes it's difficult to asses these issues as detailed in the post. From what he's said I was guessing that the tube that goes into his overflow tank is ok (not cracked) he didn't mention putting coolant into his system after finding coolant on the ground so again already guessing that the tank was over filled (either by him or the cooling system) once he's gotten the coolant down to the proper level in the recovery tank and figures out if it's putting coolant in the tank and not drawing it back there will be a post for bad coolant seals ? ? ? We shall see.

 

Yup!

 

ok, the motor has less than 40k on it and it never overheats not even a little. never a sweet smelling cloud at start up. last night i added coolant not to the overflow, i never do. i let the car run for a while with the cap off to get out any air. there was quite a bit of air in the system. it bubble for a long time. i will be pressure testing it to see about leaks. im hoping that it was the air in the system. is there any way to bleed off any other air that might be trapped. Thanks guys for all of ya'll's help.

 

yes the best way to bleed the coolant system is to buy an funnel with the coolant cap addapter on it....remove ur coolant cap the one that say(do not remove wen hot!) then put the special funnel on it and fill the funnel half way up with coolant...jack up the front of the car and start the motor....put ur heater on full balst and leave like that for about 15 mins...if u wanna bleed it faster then juss hold the idle at about 3000rpms till no more bubbles come up.....( u need to jack up the front of the car quiet a bit...so a car lift would be the best).....y lift the front up well simply because air is lighter the liquid and it will bleed out the funnel faster and u have a better chance of getting all the bubbles out!! good luck hope it works..

 

very good! i will do that tommarrow along with replacing the caps. i will update yall. hopefully this fixes it otherwise an aluminum ast it will be. the stock ast was just recently replaced!

 

alright so how many hoses connect to the overflow tank. the only one that i could find was the hose connected right at the base of the neck. that hose is not connected to anything. it hangs out the bottom of the car. is there another hose? i took the part of the skid plate off right underneath the overflow and i could see the entire tank. next is the hose that connects to the base of the filler neck on the ast. it is connected to the ast but the end of the hose is not connected anywhere. i can see that it has hose clamp marks on the end of the hose but have no idea what it is supposed to clamp to? any picks or explanations would help.

 

The upper soft hose off the AST is supposed to connect to the bottom of the O-F tank. If it doesn't, then that's your problem. It's just dumping coolant on the ground instead of cycling it back and forth to and from the O-F tank.

Dave

 

Remove the throttle body (TB) coolant line fron the back of the TB. This will allow air to escape when you fill the system. Remove both caps. Fill the ast slowly, until it won't take any more. Cap it, then fill slowly at the filler neck. Fill until it won't take any more, and cap it.

Replace the TB coolant line. Keep an eye on it while filling uncapped ast & filler neck. If coolant starts to come out, replace it right away.

This should get nearly all the air out of your system. Drive the car, and top off at filler neck after it cools. You may have to do this a couple of times to get all of the air out.

 

the upper hose is pointed the the drivers side and the hose is not long enough to make it all the way to the overflow tank. there didn't appear to be any hoses that attached all the way on the bottom of the tank.

 

The OEM version of that hose is made in at least 2 sections with a nylon nipple connecting them. It goes from the left side of the AST down to the small subframe that supports the intercooler, and across the car, clipped to the front of that subframe, and then (IIRC) under the "upper" radiator hose to a nipple on the LH bottom of the O-F tank. Maybe part of it is missing. To see the right hand portion of it, which goes across the top of the RH frame rail, the air cleaner may need to be removed (my air intake and air cleaner are aftermarket, so that's why I said "may").

Hope this is accurate - I'm doing it from memory.

Dave

 

I'm pretty sure the hose going to the over flow is in 2 peices with a white connector keeping them together. Take you underpan off and you'll probably find the other end hanging from the overflow bottle.

 

Haha DaveW beat me to it!

 

This was a contest! What did I win?

Dave

 

you both won my graditude. although i have also realized that im also an idiot and should have reffered to the tech manual listed on here. it shows clearly that the hose does go all the way accross to my overflow tank. well that is def. a problem. both of those hoses are not connected to anything allowing fluid to flow right out. once again its nice to know that there are always people that will take time and help out fellow fd owners. Thanks Shawn Tatum

 

You're welcome. Glad you found the problem.

Isn't it amazing how obvious the solution is (to anything) in hindsight? Too bad we can't have "hindsight" in advance...

Dave