Asklemmy

43760 readers

1079 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
[email protected]: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Lemmy Car Experts, I have a car that is randomly leaking coolant and need advice (Resolved) (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

26 comments fedilink hide all child comments

2012 Ford Focus, 155K miles, it is leaking a decent amount of coolant when my partner drives it to work but doesn't even leak a drop if I drive it to work. The mileage is the same but I don't sit in traffic. Could the extra heat from sitting in traffic be opening up a pinhole sized leak in the coolant line?

Edit: Thanks to a tip from the comments when the heat is turned on it leaks. I should be able to bypass that line pretty easy.

Thanks [email protected]

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

When coolant heats up, it can evaporate of there's a way out. Do you have any residue on the inside of your hood?

If you're experience a LOT of coolant loss it could be escaping into the engine through a falling head gasket. In this case you wouldn't see any residue on the inside of your hood.

God speed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If its head gasket I would expect the loss to be consistent. If you open the rocker cover cap / oil filling point and it looks like there is Mayo in there, then it could be a sign the head gasket is failing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That was my first instinct, I had a 92 Dodge Daytona which had a terrible head gasket. That was what I was seeing with that. The focus looks fine. No loss of power and no backfires so I don't believe coolant is getting into the engine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Inside hood is clean. The coolant hoses though look and feel like they are near the end of their life. I've not located where the leak is occurring, no signs of fluid on the engine block. The puddle I saw was next to the inside of the front right tire, under the coolant tank. I checked and it's leak free.

I added some stop leak to see if that solves it for now. Car only has to last another six months before we replace it and my teenager gets to deal with it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

my teenager gets to deal with it

Oh you sweet summer child

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Best way to learn how to work on a car, is to have a car that needs to be worked on.