Well after reading the 'daily driving RPM thread', I went out to take my 7 on a harder run. Everything ran fine.

When I get back home and back into my garage---i notice steam/smoke rising from my engine bay; that's never happened before, and the car was not running hot--~190 F.

I pop the hood to let some of the vapor escape--it's not a lot and disperses quickly. There's a very thin coat of moisture over the engine. I've never noticed anything like this before either...

I take a flashlight and look under the hood, and notice some GREEN (very green) drops of something on the undertray. After some searching, I've take it this is AC fluid (much too GREEN for coolant...)... I had the AC off the entire time...


so, what happened? any theories? I wasn't pushing the car THAT hard--and even if i was, why would this affect the AC of all things??

please educate me, any help's appreciated it


thanks!

 

It still COULD easily be coolant. I noticed this same phenomena when I had a leak once, when some of the liquid is boiled or burned off, ethylene glycol has a VERY green appearance. It just doesn't make sense it is refrigerant since your system was not running...

 

I would second the assumption that it's coolant. When I used to have a coolant issue it looked like what you described. Check your AST, radiator and ALL your coolant lines. You should be able to find the culprit rather quickly.

If you still have an AST, I'd suggest getting rid of it. One of the cheapest and BEST modifications I've ever done to this car. Let me know if you need an AST deletion cap/fitting. I should have an extra...

 

You have a coolant leak somewhere. My advice is to put the car up in the air, remove the undertray. Lay some newspapers around the bottom of the car and start it up. Allow gravity to take you to the vicinity of the leak. When the drip is found try to trace it back to a source.

By the sound of your posting you may need some experienced rotary buddies to help you.

Report back on your root cause.


Later

 

If you are anywhere near SD, I'd be happy to help you track down that leak.

 

Sounds like one of those dreaded pin hole leaks. They just seem to spray a fine mist, then the recovery tank throws out the steam when you shut it off and coolant pushes into it.

 

I'm up in LA---not sure how comfortable I'd be taking it all the way down to SD with a coolant leak...


I'll check the levels now to see how much I lost..


thanks for the info everyone

 

the car came with a metal one, thats fully intact... (wish it was that easy)

 

coolant leak for sure. Not a bad thing, but make sure you have coolant circulating or you could burn up your engine; and also FIND the leak!! Check lines and connections, radiator welds, etc. Im not sure about the 7's, but do you guys have an overflow tank with a purge cap? Cuz if you're running the car hard, it's going to bubble up the coolant (basically expanding it) and if it's full then it will go into the overflow tank/out of the valve -- thus into your engine bay. My protege has one of these and i accidentally over-filled with coolant a little one time, ran it hard, and sure enough it bubbled over and spilled out. no big deal. but yea figure it out, it shouldn't be too hard.

 

Where in LA are you?

 

I would have to say the same thing it's a coolant leak...and being that there are very few hoses up front near and on the radiator...check there first and also check the ast for leaks as well...

 

Sorry to hijack your thread. . .but I've got a pettit AST, and would like to get rid of it for room's sake under the hood. . .how's the AST deletion cap/fitting work?

 

Pressure test the cooling system. The A/C could also have tracer dye too.

 

First you have to have a filler neck on your engine that has a bolted upper cap attachment. Some automatic FDs do, Some don't. All of my automatic cars did. Then once you have that, remove the top two bolts and toss the stock upper cap attachment. Then get a FC filler cap that has the conventional venting tube attached to it, mount it and run a hose directly to the overflow bottle. Put your pressure cap on the new fc cap. Plug off the radiator bottom nozzle. That's it in a nutshell without going into evey little detail of the install...


Later

 

its just a black plastic assembly that bolts onto the of your filler neck. It has a nipple that you attach your coolant overflow tank to and is sealed with a oring to insure no leaks. I have one and works great. Just dont forget you would need to use a pressuized cap there since you would no longer have the AST. AST is useless in my opinion.

 

concluded: coolant leak, not from AST----either lower rad. hose, or water pump (please..no!)...

going to be buying a jack sometime this week, and will get to it over the weekend will let yall know how it goes! thanks for all the help

 

haha........


so i go to pep boys and buy a jack and stands, shop light

spend an hour wrestling with those plastic screws on the undertray..

blah blah,

find the hose, which, of course, didn't need any undertray removal or jacking
+1 for newbs!


anyway, attached a pic of it...just had to let my car idle after re-filling, got it to OT, shut it off...and watched the waterworks:


is this something I can find at pep boys? any specific part number or name for it?

 

used pep boys fuel injection tube--3/8" , same size as original..slightly more resistant


plugged it up, clamped it down no more leak

 

well done. im glad it was easy for you.