Well, I was going to post a thread about my 99 taillight conversion I just finished, but something more sinister has come up.

I bled my brakes this morning to get the rest of the air out after my ss line install, and after doing a quick jaunt around the block to make sure everything was good, i noticed some dripping under the car after I got back into the garage. Got underneath and sure enough, it's coolant.

So I got the car up and the belly pan off and everything is wet. I just checked my coolant friday and it was topped off fine. Anyway, here's a shot of what I believe to be the cuprit:




In this shot, the hose to the right with the white lettering on it.




Close up. I loosened the hose clamp slightly and a drop of coolant immediately popped out. The hose is pushed up very far on the connection, so I'm hoping that it's just the hose and not the hard pipe.

I'm guessing the best thing to do is try to get another hose clamp on and cinch it down good?

 

you'll also notice more coolant on some hoses above this one, but I can't find any other point where it looks like there's a leak, so I'm thinking that it's misting out and spraying other areas, but maybe someone else may have some insight?

 

Well I added a hose clamp to that hose, a threaded screw type. I moved the original up a bit and put the new one on behind it, ran the car till it got up to running temp and sat underneath and watched, no coolant leaking yet. Batteries died in my digital camera, so no more pics.

 

Well, no one had replied, but I'm gonna post again anyway

I took the car out for a quick drive, more coolant when I got back. I left it up on the stands and went out for a bit to take a break and came back at it after about an hour.

I got underneath and repositioned all the hose clamps that I could see dealing with the cooling system, made sure they were all good and tight, then wiped everything down with a rag to dry it off so I could see fresh coolant if it leaked again, and went for another quick test drive.

I'm happy to report that everything is still dry after the 2nd, longer test run. Guess this goes to show that you need to listen to people when they say to check your coolant hoses often!

Now maybe I'll post those 99 tail light pics...

 

you should be overcome with a brisk feeling of accomplishment.

Have a Guinness and Relax.

 

Ha, I'm way ahead of you The sun even came out after I was done putting the belly pan on, and we were able to go out for a nice drive and some ice cream.

 

I'd say it would be a lot more intelligent to buy the hoses in that area for $20-$30, change them, and not have to worry about it for a while.

They're done, injured, busted, broke, finished...change em.

 

yeah, good point, this really was probably a band-aid fix. I'll be up by Malloy Mazda this afternoon, I should stop in and order the hoses while I'm up there.

 

I'm digging this back up because I want to replace my coolant hoses starting with the ones in this pic, but I'm not sure which hose the one with the writing on it is. I'm looking at the coolant flow diagram and I don't see anything like this hose on it. Here are some more pictures for reference:






In this pic, the hose attached to the hard pipe.

 

That's either the power steering line or secong oil cooler line, if you have an R-1. NOT a coolant hose.... unless I'm on crack

 

Not an R1, and it's definately a coolant hose. When I loosened the hose clamp to reposition it so I could put the 2nd clamp on, coolant came out.

Could it be part of the heating system hoses?

 

I got no clue what that hose is then. So sorry... where does the other end go to?

 

Sorry, i didn't take anymore pictures, and I can't remember where it went. i'll get back underneath the car tonight and take some better pictures.

 

the small diameter hose with white lettering appears to be a power steering line [especially if you are referring to the one with the flimsy bracket attached].

 

double check your p/s fluid resevoir to be safe!!

 

Ok, I'll check the PS fluid tonight as well. It may have been mixed with coolant, because i know that the lower radiator hose was leaking a bit too before i tightned the hose clamp.

 

The hose is part of the power steering cooling loop:


see pg. N-2

 

Oh yeah, on N-7 as well. Ok thanks again. Guess that solves that problem.

 

See, and here I was, checking into a clinic for crack addiction...

 

lol. And once again I've learned something new. PS fluid looks like coolant!