Orange or green liquid dripping onto the ground beneath your vehicle is a clear sign that coolant is leaking. There are four main ways leaking coolant can become apparent: What Are the Warning Signs of a Coolant Leak? Whatever the source of the leak, it must be found as soon as possible and repaired.

The problem may be nothing more than a loose hose clamp.Ĭoolant may also seep from the radiator, the water pump, the coolant reservoir, and in the worst case, from a blown head gasket. The connection points between hoses and other elements like the radiator and water pump are another good place to look. They are relatively easy and inexpensive to replace if you find coolant dripping out of one of them. The first place to look for a coolant leak in your car is the coolant hoses. That forces the water pump to work harder and allows heat to build up in the engine. When coolant leaks, there is less of it to cool the engine. The most common problem leading to overheating is a coolant leak. Fortunately, a dashboard warning light will indicate an overheating engine long before the switch is tripped, giving the operator plenty of time to address the issue. It won’t allow you to drive beyond a certain point, to prevent catastrophic damage to the engine. In fact, most vehicles today include an automatic cutoff switch if the engine gets too hot. Without a cooling system, temperatures would rise well beyond that, damaging the water pump, head gasket, cylinder, connector rods and more. In other words, without an operating cooling system, your car would fail. Even with coolant doing its job, engines run at an average temperature of 190-220 degrees Fahrenheit and can reach even higher temperatures under certain conditions.Īs coolant is pumped to the radiator, a fan blows the heat out into the air, or into the passenger compartment when the heater is turned on. The coolant is then circulated back to the engine to begin the cycle again, a round-trip it makes thousands of times during the 50,000 miles of operation it will last in your car before a scheduled flushing. This antifreeze-water mixture that we call coolant is pumped through hoses around the engine, absorbing its heat in the process. The water absorbs heat from the engine and gives it up in the radiator while the antifreeze prevents the water from freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer, and it keeps the radiator and hoses clear of deposits and corrosion. Coolant is a half-and-half mixture of antifreeze and water, working together in combination. The cooling system includes numerous parts – the radiator, radiator fan, coolant hoses, water pump, coolant reservoir, and the coolant itself. Consequently, when your car has a coolant leak, it should be a matter of immediate concern. It keeps the engine from overheating and grinding to a halt.

Leaking coolant repair