Hi. Nothing like the unexpected smell of anti-freeze quickly followed by the low coolant idiot light. Just happened and lucky just a mile or so from home so she's in the garage cooling off. Need to figure out where she's leaking. Here is what I can see. It's worse on the passenger side than the driver side. Upper radiator hose and radiator are dry. This is on my 1996 Mustang GT 4.6 2V.
On the drivers side there is coolant puddled at the base of the thermostat housing and in the first three fuel injector wells. No signs of where it's leaking from just that coolant puddles present in those places.
On the passenger side there is coolant spray on the air induction hose as well as the neighboring areas and some on the underside of the hood mat. There is coolant located in the coolant/temp sensor housing and also in the fuel injection wells on the passenger side.
What surprised me is after it has now sat for a few minutes is I have coolant all under the car clear back to the rear bumper. Nothing in front, but it is pretty apparent from the front cats all the way back to the rear bumper.
I checked the oil and it looks fine (no signs of coolant in the oil).
So, something let go pretty fast and pretty major to run it that far back. I don't believe it was an existing issue because drove it about 20 miles earlier today and no anti-freeze smell and no coolant on garage floor. I'll let it cool a bit longer and then will put it up on stands to see if I can identify anything further from underneath. The car has just 23,000 miles on it (yep, very low miles). I've been driving it pretty regularly here so far this summer and it just went a few days ago on a 2 hour round trip without issues.
I did notice something that I hadn't noticed before. On the temp / coolant sensor housing there is a threaded hole that nothing is screwed into (it's on the top front of the housing). Should something be in that? I don't think it's related but wanted to mention that in hopes of finding out if that is normal.
Hopefully I'll have a better idea when I get it up in the air but not seeing immediately where the obvious cause is because it's odd to have coolant on the driver side thermostat housing well as well as the fuel injector housing wells over there without any spray pattern showing how it got there. Maybe the plastic intake manifold failed? I don't know if there are particular symptoms or things to look for that will help identify that. Perhaps the temp sensor is leaking. Can't see any sign of it at the base but perhaps the plastic part where the wires clip into it as that is wet but could be just from spray originating elsewhere.
I appreciate any thoughts or insights anyone might have. Can take any pics needed. Thanks in advance for the assistance!
On the drivers side there is coolant puddled at the base of the thermostat housing and in the first three fuel injector wells. No signs of where it's leaking from just that coolant puddles present in those places.
On the passenger side there is coolant spray on the air induction hose as well as the neighboring areas and some on the underside of the hood mat. There is coolant located in the coolant/temp sensor housing and also in the fuel injection wells on the passenger side.
What surprised me is after it has now sat for a few minutes is I have coolant all under the car clear back to the rear bumper. Nothing in front, but it is pretty apparent from the front cats all the way back to the rear bumper.
I checked the oil and it looks fine (no signs of coolant in the oil).
So, something let go pretty fast and pretty major to run it that far back. I don't believe it was an existing issue because drove it about 20 miles earlier today and no anti-freeze smell and no coolant on garage floor. I'll let it cool a bit longer and then will put it up on stands to see if I can identify anything further from underneath. The car has just 23,000 miles on it (yep, very low miles). I've been driving it pretty regularly here so far this summer and it just went a few days ago on a 2 hour round trip without issues.
I did notice something that I hadn't noticed before. On the temp / coolant sensor housing there is a threaded hole that nothing is screwed into (it's on the top front of the housing). Should something be in that? I don't think it's related but wanted to mention that in hopes of finding out if that is normal.
Hopefully I'll have a better idea when I get it up in the air but not seeing immediately where the obvious cause is because it's odd to have coolant on the driver side thermostat housing well as well as the fuel injector housing wells over there without any spray pattern showing how it got there. Maybe the plastic intake manifold failed? I don't know if there are particular symptoms or things to look for that will help identify that. Perhaps the temp sensor is leaking. Can't see any sign of it at the base but perhaps the plastic part where the wires clip into it as that is wet but could be just from spray originating elsewhere.
I appreciate any thoughts or insights anyone might have. Can take any pics needed. Thanks in advance for the assistance!
