last night i took my truck on a 10min drive to fill her up. when i got back i notice a big wet spot where i had my truck parked earlier(from when i got back after work). i know the coolant/antifreeze has been low for a while so it got me thinking. this morning when i checked under the hood, i put a half gallon of 50/50(which is what i always put in) and i went to close the hood and noticed the hood was all wet. a little more investigating i found that the whole front of the alt. is soaked with coolant. i tried to check the water pump but i couldn't see far enough down to see where it had sprayed out.

could this be the water pump at all or can this come from the lower radiator hose.

i didn't see the gauge go past the half way point at all but the heat blowing out of the vents did seem unusually warmer.

also a little humor for everyone, i raced a guy last night by my house. the sneaky devil ran the red light but it changed green just before he got half way across. so i took off and almost passed him when my truck wouldn't go into 3rd gear. it was the first time i ever lost to a v6 hyundia .

 

It possibly could be the pump. It could be the hoses or radiator. Just got to find it somehow. Hose it down real good to get a fresh look. If needed the UV detector kits are cheep and easy to use, very easy to find the leak.

LOL! Darn cheaters!

 

you can also have it pressure checked. A leak like that shouldn't be hard to find.

 

being the radiator, upper radiator hose and thermostat is a year old i would point fingers towards the lower radiator hose or the water pump. reason being the lower radiator hose is swelling from age and i don't know when the water pump was last replaced if it was replaced.

i'm also starting to have a starting issue with it too but that'll be for another thread...

 

so i looked it over and cleaned up the coolant as best as i could. i drove it down to the store to get 2 gallons of 50/50(its 6$ at fleet farm) which is 5minutes from where i live. i looked down at the gauge and watched it as it went to "H" and 10seconds later i pulled into fleets parking lot it went down and stopped at normal. i went in bought 2 gallons and came out, there was no coolant on the ground but the belt, alt, and compressor where covered in it. i checked the lower radiator hose and it was dry along with the radiator, upper radiator hose and most of the front of the motor(what i could see). i filled teh radiator and filled the overflow tank up to the full line and drover it home.the guage stayed at normal operating temp and no coolant leaked out. when i got home i left the truck running popped the hood and checked for leaks, then shut the truck off and waited for it to spray fluid out(if it would) but nothing happened and the overflow tank and radiator are still full. i'm lost now

could a blown head gasket cause this? i've never had one on a dodge so i don't know how it goes. i also did notice a loss in acceleration while driving to the store. could this have anything to do with it?

 

You should check and see if your bypass hose is leaking. I ran into a similar problem on my father in law's '95 Ram Van V6. I replaced the water pump, radiator, t-stat and hoses and still had a leak. Put my pressure tester and saw it pissing from behind the a/c compressor. It's a pain to do; you have to remove both the a/c compressor and the alternator then remove the bracket that holds them just to replace the bypass hose. Good luck.

 

Just to clarify: you don't have to totally remove the A/C compressor, or the alternator. You only have to unmount them and move them out of the way. (Specifically the A/C compressor, because disconnecting the refrigerant lines would require a vacuum be applied afterwards to check the lines and evacuate the air, and than a full system recharge)

 

Unlikely to be the head gasket, unless you have noticed massive exhaust clouds. Coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant are classic signs, although they generally do not result in such rapid coolant loss, and never results in coolant on the ground (altho I should not say never ever seen it)

Your water pump might be getting ready to go, when the internal bearing is experiencing significant wear, it will leak through the weep hole on the bottom of the pump. This is to alert the operator of impending water pump failure. When mine went, sometimes there was a drip drip, sometimes nothing, and finally basically a steady stream of coolant running out. Locate your water pump and see if this is the problem.

And no more racing until you get it fixed! Haha

 

Something else to check, my radiator split at the upper tank joint. It wouldn't leak just sitting, didn't leak all the time, only leaked with a full radiator while running and stopped leaking once the fluid level dropped below the tank joint. Took me like 6 months to figure that one out.

 

i'm getting rid of the ac anyway so that'll be good.with it being around 20degrees out and getting as low as 5 (below average temps for this month so far) the exhaust engulfs the whole side of the truck. in my experience with wrench on cars these are the (somewhat) the same symptoms that my '05 honda had when the head warped. i'll check everything out tomorrow morning and get pics. i almost had a new truck today anyway. some idiot in an 04 honda odessy wasn't paying attention as i was slowing down to make a turn and almost hit me... i watched the entire performance in my rearview mirror and even heard the squealing of tires as he snapped to attention(so much for insurance being cheaper because of the area i move to...lol)