I just had my 2006 in the shop (I'm not a DIY of any time). New tires. Rear brakes/rotors. New battery. And new wiper blades.

Three days in a row I'm seeing a puddle in the morning.


The windshield reservoir is quite full, which makes sense, since they changed the wiper blades they might have filled it up (I certainly haven't filled it for very long time). The stuff on the driveway is a thin clear fluid with some foam to it. My engine coolant is greenish. So that does suggest it's the windshield stuff.

I opened the hood and there's no dripping or moisture anywhere I can see. No obvious loose hoses, etc.

I looked under the car and I could see fresh drips on the underside of the front tip, but it also looked as if they were running along the underside for some small distance; given the angle of the driveway and the angle of the underside of the car, the drips are not landing directly below where they emanate from.

I looked inside the front "grille" to try and touch and see what's wet - hard to be certain but I think it's MAYBE coming out of the vertical rectangle on the left.


What do you think the fluid is? What should I look for? Obviously if I can avoid a trip to the garage and a day without a car, I'd appreciate it but also obviously I'm not too technical, so thanks for your thoughts, as always...

 

that verticale rectangle is the vent for the battery box i doubt your battery is leaking cuz if it was leaking that bad, YOUD KNOW

i dunno what that stuff leaking is but its not coming from that vent

 

Okay, thanks. I can't really get my head or my face into where I think it's coming from, so obviously I'm wrong. I can't tell for sure if it's coming out of the nose, or running along the underside.

 

Do you have an idea of what kind of fluid it is? Oil smell? Fuel smell? Sweet smell? Based on the location i would check a few things.

1. Make sure your oil cooler lines arent rusted. That doesn't look like oil, but in case it is, that would be a common source of oil leaking from the front

2. Make sure your coolant reservoir isn't overflowing. There is a line that comes off of the air separation tank (the tank with teh radiator cap on it) that is used to release coolant when it starts to overflow. Is that line wet? Dripping? If so, make sure your radiator cap is working properly

3. Some people have had the line between the air separation tank and the radiator itself break, crack, etc. This would surely cause leaking, especially when the car gets warmer.

Those should at least get you started.

 

the nose where? close to what? i need details

theres 2 coolant hoses that run along side the ecu on the passenger side and theres the resevoir. theres no other fluids or hoses in the very front of the car

 

odd ... there is a droplet on the inlet to the ECU cooler

 

Good spotting Shell . His ECU must be crying !

 

No smell. Very clear and thin. Seems almost like water.

There's no dripping or anything that I can see from looking at the engine area. Only under the car do I see anything dripping.

The leaking seems to be happening overnight? Not sure where that particular line would be, but will try and look, thanks.

 

You can see from the first picture where drips are pooling - it's along the left (as you look at the front of the car). I can't tell if the fluid is coming from the grille area (I had thought that maybe it was coming out the battery vent, I can't really see), or from under the car itself, originating further back.

 

its a little forward, but the radiator is also right there, if you look in you should be able to see the top plastic tank meet the aluminum core, and it should be dry.

 

I see coolant in the same area under my car. When investigating, it appears to be a leak right below the reservoir tank. I don't have a new radiator yet so am not going to attempt pulling the reservoir off just yet in fear that it might be the notorious nipple on the top of the radiator that is failing. Could it simply be the tube is cracked or is that nipple most likely the culprit?

I suppose the only way to tell for sure is to pull it with a new radiator on hand....

 

stick your head in there, that nipple is probably only going to break when you're tugging on it.

its far more likely to be leaking between the top radiator tank and the core, or from the seam on the coolant bottle

 

Did he verify it wasn't the coolant overflow reservoir leaking? There is a tube that comes off of it, (which I would extend by the way anyways since that will just be a pain when your power steering goes out) and see if that is the source?