Mountaineer Posted December 4 Report Share Posted December 4 A few days ago, I smelled coolant and found a small leak underneath the front passenger side of engine bay. It is not large and hardly drips once shut off. I can see it around the bottom of A/C compressor and it gets blown back a couple feet underneath chassis. There is not any fluid on top side and it has not been overheating. Slight drop in level of coolant in tank. I am fairly confident the top weep hole is not leaking, but not for certain if it could be the lower one. Is there anything besides weep holes or hoses that could produce a small leak, without over heating? It is driving fine, runs strong, etc... It is our only car and daily driver, but certainly do not have $2,000 to replace water pump. Despite my experience and fairly good mechanical abilities, I am not equipped to pull an engine myself, either. I am going through cancer treatments and hoping this is not the water pump or else we are without a vehicle. Lastly, even if it is the water pump going bad, is there a chance of watching the temperature and coolant level and still using it as long as the leak is small? Thank you in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigma-2 Posted Friday at 05:04 AM Report Share Posted Friday at 05:04 AM (edited) As you stated, there are two weep holes and it does sound like to lower on is showing a leak. 1. Maintain a close check on your oil. Any evidence of coolant intrusion will change to oil to look like a milk shake. Its important that you take immediate action when this occurs as it dilutes the oil and it loses its ability to lubricate. 2. Maintain your coolant levels. Even though its just a drip, you don't want to coolant lever to get low. Use the same coolant that came with the engine. Never mix coolants. (If you need to change to a newer coolant, do a flush and remove all traces of the old coolant.) 3. This was discussed here in the forum back in 2019 (here) Skim down to the excellent response from @WWWPerfA_ZN0W. 4. Keep in mind that that the water pump has two gaskets. An inner one and an outer one. When the inner one leaks, it shows at the drip hole (as yours is apparently doing.) Its an early warning to service the water pump. When the outer one leaks, it leaks into the crankcase and dilutes to oil. Other than oil dilution, there's no warning for the outer one. (The early warning is the leak from the weep hole.) 5. You said that you can't afford the $2500 to replace the pump. You should be aware that there's a class action lawsuit against Ford on their use of bad bearings in the pump that contributes to leaking. (Don't know how far along the suit is, but could check and get your name on list.) https://fordauthority.com/2024/01/ford-water-pump-lawsuit-settlement-ends-class-action/#:~:text=According to the lawsuit%2C defective,washes out the bearing lubricant. But in any case, check often so that it doesn't start leaking into the oil and kill the engine. Edited Friday at 05:14 AM by enigma-2 Spelling and clarification 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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