I have been fighting with a coolant leak for this car for a while now. I have taken it to 3 mechanics and not a single one has managed to find out what the issue was. People see the stains from leaking coolant, they see the coolant level is down but none of them seem to be able to find the coolant leak and none of them can make it leak in the shop. It is leaking somewhere near the right rear passenger side. It seemingly stopped after its most recent attempt to be fixed and I have just been checking the coolant periodically to make sure I dont risk running low again.
The car had sat for roughly 48 hours but when I went to check the coolant levels it hissed when I went to remove the cap and leaked a very small amount out of the fill valve. somewhere around a quarter to half an ounce leaked out and went down the drain hole. About Five seconds later it sounded like some one was taking a leak on the pavement and I look under the car to find this. It leaked for maybe 10-15 seconds and then stopped as suddenly as it started. The strangest part is now it shows it has MORE coolant then the last time I checked it according to the fill area! I am at a loss, the local mechanics are at a loss. Please offer up any help you can! (this is an 09
boxster s
if that helps at all and this whole even happened without starting the car at any point)
You might want to check for the presence of combustion products in the coolant.
Has the area around the water pump been inspected? That is where my CPO
Cayman
leaked ( WP ).
Right rear would also point towards the header tank and pressure cap, both of which are known to leak. Change the pressure cap as a matter of routine maintenance, and have the header tank carefully examined for splits.
I do not know if they checked around the water pump but it if it was the pump you would think it would leak under pressure not only when losing pressure, at least that's how other water pumps on other cars have failed on me. I will double check with the most recent mechanic though. Does checking the coolant involve sending it off to be tested I presume?
The tank is good and this massive leak was not from the pressure cap however for the drain line down is there somewhere the fluid could pool and once its gets so much in it that it might all dump out at once? maybe I will pour some water down the drain line and see if I can cause the effect again or at least see where it drips out of the car.
So fun update. it turns out the drain hole for fluid overflow is a pretty long drain line and it drains right
next
to the engine. It also turns out that it can hold a lot of fluid that can all dump out at once meaning the evil culprit is the darn coolant cap. Victory for me and I know a couple of mechanics who will not have my future business!
So you just replaced the coolant cap and it fixed the problem? Not sure what function the cap itself has in these cars, but I am curious because I may have a similar issue. Have not noticed any fluid o the ground, but I park in various spots both at work and my apartment complex so that part is a little harder. I just know that the car gave me a low coolant warning, and smelled like coolant when I arrived at work this morning.
A common fail point in these cooling systems seems to be the actual overflow container itself. They get really yellow and brittle overtime and eventually crack. Possible place to look
But yeah your right the drain travels all the way down to the bottom of the car haha, nice diagnosis!
