Fsher21

I drive about a quarter mile home from work today and noticed I was dripping coolant. I opened the hood, and it was leaking from a connection leading from tstat to the heater control valve, then it was leaking from the heater control valve which was replaced a year ago. I tightened up a fitting for the hose running from the tstat, and that stopped dripping, and I was willing to let the control valve drip until I could fix it. i ran it for a few mins and shut it off. Checked under it and i was dumping a lot more coolant from possibly some part of the radiator, but i cant tell, there is too much stuff in the way.

What the hell would make it leak from all of those places at once? Also the heater was off, so there was nothing flowing through the return line so it was cold.

Edit: Looks like the leak by the radiator is coming from the connection at the top. I am going to take the cap off start it to check for flow.

I have class all afternoon, but I am able to skip the the first 2 if needed. Any input would be nice, I have no idea where to start, besides researching.

thanks

Fsher21

Took the cap off and let it heat up, dumped coolant the whole time until the tstat opened up, coolant would go down and seemed to cycle, then raise again when closed. There was no leaking from anything else until I turned it off, then it leaked from the radiator connection again, even with the cap off. control valve may of been leaking, but didnt see it dripping like before.

Would really like some input, still set on it being blocked some how

DFlintstone

I'm not much help here. Wonder if the first leak made it heat up and start another? Search and destroy! (the leaks), and check/watch that you are not overheating as an under lying cause.

Fsher21

I am really thinking it is a bad radiator cap. i think the leaking I saw with the cap off was just a little bit from the spill before dripping, cause it was hardly any at all.

Now i need to find a way to limp to the store to buy a new one. Can I put my cap on half way, and still be able to replace the cap in the parking lot without burning my hands off?

Fsher21

Well I think I got it all figured out, for anyone searching multiple coolant leaks at once in the future lol.

Looks like my radiator cap got stuck or something, cause I played with it a bit before buying the new one, and didn't have any more issues after that, with both old cap and new. Just didn't allow pressure to release correct and caused it to leak at the weakest spots, so when i tightened up one leaking connection, it just leaked more out of the others. Since i couldn't tighten the upper radiator hose, it ended up just leaking there in the end.

Looks like i did a bit of permanent damage to the heater control valve, has a very very slow leak from where the metal vacuum line goes into the cheap plastic unit, but nothing to worry about.