Archived Losing coolant

[Joe Mc]

Headed from Philly area to visit daughter in Monessen (close to Pitt) this afternoon. About 85 miles from her place we pull off for dinner. Let the truck run a few mins as usual to cool down, egt down to 300 then shut down. As we're walking away I smelled glycol and noticed a wet spot underneath, just off center to the right and about where damper is. Pop hood and look around, notice a sort of oily substance around, ran finger under top hose, sticky like glycol but dark like oil? Got under and looked up, bottom of steering stabilizer has a bit of same substance. After we ate, I further investigated and it looks as if the water pump seal was leaking. Coolant level was full, reservoir was a few inches lower than full hot mark and wet spot on ground was no bigger than before we went in to eat. Pulled out and into a fuel station across the street for a better look, nothing leaking. Was real concerned about blown head gasket but head to block surface looked dry. Snice it had gotten dark and cooler, we headed off and kept speed around 60. STAT opened at 190 and temp gage went down to 180-ish a few times. We pulled a decent grade for a few mile and the temp went to about 200, on came the heater and we crested the grade as it started to rain - thank goodness. Temp went down to 180 and for the next 30 or so miles we did the heat on/off deal to keep temp below 190 and made it to the hotel fine, temp about 190. Leaving it run I turned the heat on, no hot or even warm air. I put some water in the reservoir which was empty, squeezed top hose which was soft so decided to loosen the cap, no pressure and added about a half gallon of water, started to get heat out of registers and the temp came down to below 180 so I shut down for the night. I let it cool for 30 mins or so and took another look. There was a little glycol on the freeze plug at front of head and some dried up streaks on the idler bracket underneath also noticed dried streaks under water pump. Plan in the am is, fill with water and let it get up to operating temp and see if i can find where leak is. Either way I'm going to pick up a new water pump, new anti-freeze and hopefully a freeze plug. If I can't determine if there's a leak at the plug I'll do the pump and see how it goes from there. First real over the road problem I've had since I got it in 01 with 75k miles, presently 218k. Wish me luck and I'll update as I go. In the meantime if anyone has any ideas similar experiences please share. Oh, I forgot, about 80k miles ago when I replaced the rad, upper and lower hoses, I decided to install a new water pump just because.... Probably should have left the original one on... ttyal

 

[JR]

Hey Joe, good luck and please let us know what you find. Hopefully it is just the water pump and the fan is blowing the coolant around giving it the appearance of having leaks in multiple places. Try drying as much of the block off as you can before starting and checking for leaks. Should be a little easier to see in the daylight.

 

[RWherley]

Where did you get your replacement pump at? I tried autozone pumps and they would only last around 2 months for me, I got a and its lasted over a year so far

 

[jgillott]

I'm only about 30 miles from Monessen. Let me know if you need a hand.

 

[Joe Mc]

Hey all thanks for replies and offer to help. It was the water pump. Apparently the seal went and coolant blasting thru wasted the bearing. Got new, not reman, at Auto Zone, new gates gator belt @ NAPA 6 gallons of Prestone glycol @ Wally Mart and back on the road. Thanks again.