Cooling System Leak

[Matthewfinlay04]

I had this slow leak for about 2 months now and I have been unable to figure it out. I thought that it was the water pump so I replaced that, still leaking. Now it looks as if it is leaking from the drivers side down onto the transmission. Also once the car's temp goes over the halfway mark the Transmission starts to shift extremely hard! under normal operating temps it shifts great though. Are these two problems related?? I'm probably going to have to take it into the dearlership to fix the cooling problem but I just wanted to know before I took the dive.

[AftermathAlero]

how many miles is on the car? maybe leaking hoses? Are all ur hoses in good condition? check the clamps too. the factory clamps sucks balls.

[Matthewfinlay04]

I visually checked the hoses that I could see and they all looked pretty good visually from the top. I will go back over and tighten up the clamps. the car have 174,000 miles on it so things are bond to start going wrong. The waterpump / thermo this month was the first thing I have ever had to replace on the car, other than normal maintance.

[PiMpAlErO88]

yea man i am having the same problem but my trany doesn't shift hard n even if my coolant is low the heat decent rise over the half mark..... i don't know what it can be!! if u figure it out let me know please thx

[Oldsman]

driver side? maybe the the o-ring on the bleed off tube or the housing for the return back to the radiator. the only other thing on the drivers side that would leak would be head gasket.

[Matthewfinlay04]

if it was the head gasket wouldn't there be a noticable loss of power? I can keep up with my buddy who runs mid 15's

[Matthewfinlay04]

Also, I have check the Oil and doesn't appear to have any Antifreeze in it. Also My heater blows HOT air, and I don't have Any smoke of any color EVER out of my exhaust. So I don't think that it is the head gasket. But the O-ring I will def check because we took that hose off when replacing the water-pump.

[Oldsman]

i would bet on the bleed off tube. if you moved it or bent it which you would have when removing exhaust manifold. that o-ring is small and it is where the tube goes into the composite housing. more than likely that is where the problem is.

[Matthewfinlay04]

Thanks a lot. I am going to work on this weekend. I thought thats were it was too but I didn't have the free time to work on this week. Thanks for all your help. I will inform when I gte it all figured out.

[Matthewfinlay04]

Well I replaced the Heater Hoses, for one side of the Heater "T" and all was well for about 4 days. Now it is starting to leak again, Da*n thing. I know what I will be doing again this weekend. I think she hates me!

[Oldsman]

take some pics of where the leak is and post it and i will help ya out.

[Matthewfinlay04]

I will work on the pictures

[Matthewfinlay04]

Regarding my other question, any thought as to why the tranny shifts hard once the temp gauge reach or exceeds the half way mark?? I recently changed the filter and fuild thinking maybe it was just dirty. I refilled with Mobil 1 and used a champ filter. The tranny shift flawless when the car is at normal operating temps, but if I'm stuck in traffic and the temp rises just over normal the tranny shift hard as hell outta first!

[PiMpAlErO88]

yea man turns out i need some new headgaskets!! :blush: its prity gay

[alero168]

Originally posted by Matthewfinlay04@Oct 6 2005, 12:53 PM
I visually checked the hoses that I could see and they all looked pretty good visually from the top. I will go back over and tighten up the clamps. the car have 174,000 miles on it so things are bond to start going wrong. The waterpump / thermo this month was the first thing I have ever had to replace on the car, other than normal maintance.
Quoted post

am i reading that right you have 174,000 miles on your car and it still only has minor problems??? damn you must baby your car, where do you live by the way, i think you may hvae the longest running alero :)

[Matthewfinlay04]

Yeah your reading this right 174,000 miles. I only baby it in the sense that I use the best everything. MY father owned the car before me and swears by MAXLIFE. When I acquired the car this year I have used nothing but Mobil 1 EP. And yeah we have never had any engine problems, just replaced waterpump and in process of hoses now for the first time. I live in ohio/michigan. From ohio but in michigan for school. we have had the normal problems of the infamous wheel bearings going out, probably due to brake dust poor engineering. And tierods starting to go bad. but otherwise she's been great. Plus the computer was modified to change shift points and air/fuel ratio's.

[Matthewfinlay04]

Hey guys here is one picture so far. It really hard to get a good shot because everything is so tight in there. After looking at it some more yesterday I'm starting to think maybe the quick-connect is bad. The one that attaches from the Thermo house to the one heaterhose. Thats the hoses that I replaced and looking in there yesterday the quick-connect looked a little wet. I'll try to get a better shot today. But just wanted to let you know that I am trying.

[Matthewfinlay04]

oh I guess that didn't work oh well. Tryed to upload them as an attachment. But here the the weblink to them anyways.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/Mfi...04/KIF_0027.jpg (http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/Mfinlay04/KIF_0027.jpg)

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/Mfi...04/KIF_0026.jpg (http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/Mfinlay04/KIF_0026.jpg)

[Oldsman]

on that housing did you pull out the metal tube on the side of it. it is torwards the exhaust side. and replace the o-ring on it??? did you check to make sure the tube isn't cracked or broke?

i say replace that clamp and if it still leaks then drain the coolant and take off that hose, housing, metal tube. and replace the o-rings on the housing, tube and inspect for crack on the tube and housing. that housing is plastic.

[Matthewfinlay04]

Yeah I replaced the o-ring on the metal tube. and the tube wasn't broken when I took it out. As for the housing I'm not sure if it was cracked or not but I will have to check that out. The clamp on the house is brand new. I put on one that can be tighten with a flat-head, adn threw away the OEM clamp that you have to pinch. possibly I didn't get the hose on far enough??? It was a pain the the a$$ because there very little room.

Thanks for all your help I will keep everyone updated.