Alright, lately my S-belt has been squealing, and from past experience, I know getting fluids on it will cause that. So open the hood today, and from the left side of the A/c compressor there is what looks like coolant coming out of the S-belt side of the compressor. There is coolant (I'm guessing since it's green) on a couple pulleys, on the alternator, and puddling next to the A/c compressor on the acc. bracket./ top of manifold there. Hard to explain sorry. It's not a whole lot of coolant, just looks like it may have hit the belt, and flew off onto the other components.

The A/C compressor has bolts on it, holding the part where the pulley comes out of it, and that looks to be where it's coming from. The bolts holding the lil plate there, look to be tight, but I haven't put a wrench on it yet.

My question is...Would the whole A/C compressor need replaced, or does anyone know if there is a gasket there, that has maybe failed??

You can see a lil bit of coolant sitting there, but its the area with all the black grease, that I'm pointing at, that was really wet earlier, when I looked. It dried up after a lil bit of being parked. It seems to squeal alot more, when I'm on the gas.

 

maybe the water pump is on it's way out and is flingin coolant up around there.... The A/C compressor shouldn't have any coolant in it anyway should it?

 

Um, been awhile since I've seen it personally, but used to be the refrigerant in modern trucks is green.... BUT, usually when that has a leak, it sprays everything in the bay down, and I mean everything. The hood included.

There is not a gasket there and the whole damn compressor has to be replaced. Sucks, but that's life too. If you plan on doing this yourself, you'll need a vacuum tool to pressurize the system down before adding the coolant and the oil. Always remember the little 2oz can of oil! That's what killed mine after the shop just unhooked a line and let it blow out.

This is all assuming that you don't have a pinhole in that hose, or that the water pump is flinging the engine coolant up in that area either.... Or timing chain cover...

 

has dye been added to your refrigerant to find leaks in the past? there would usually be a sticker on your core support applied by a mechanic talking about this. if not it is probably anifreeze/coolant that is found in your engine cooling system. check that upper radiator hose that is resting on your refrigerant lines right above those bolts, it looks like it shows signs of a pinhole right there. maybe have the coolant system pressure checked. I am betting upper radiator hose.

 

The least expensive fix/troubleshooting is to get borrow some ac gauges and check your pressures. Does you ac work? Normally an ac leak is going to be around the fittings of the plumbing. and if it had die added to it for leak detection...it will be like oil/dirty not fluid.

 

Okay, went outside, wiped that radiator hose down, wiped down what I could and started the truck. Nothing anywhere, no squealing. Took it for a drive literally around 1 block, and the squeaking started half way around.

Got back and popped the hood. The alternator and bracket is covered again. I looked around, and I don't know where the water pump is. If it is around the balancer deal/ bottom of the serp. belt, I think that's where it may be coming from. The bottom of the radiator hose is dry where I wiped it, but the coolant is managing to somehow get on top of the alternator. And on the bracket is puddled up, as you can kinda see next to the A/C compressor. I'm about positive it is coolant.

Not only that, but there's a pretty good amount of probably dried-up, caked-on coolant on that middle pulley. It seems to make the belt wobble a bit, so is it safe to take a straight razor and scrape it off ya think??

 

That middle pulley in your pic should be an idler, the waterpump is right below that and above your crank pulley (with the balancer). Check the waterpump, looks to be your problem. The discoloration on your hose is from the coolant being thrown onto it from the belt.

Hope this helps

 

Engine coolant. Water pump is right behind the fan. If the pump is going bad, it will literally fling it everywhere. Is there a nice line of coolant across the bottom of the hood right there?

 

Alright, sorry to be a total noob, but it there anyway to check the waterpump, without disassembly. I'm guessing just removing the fan shroud, should open things up a bit, and let me look a bit deeper. The temps are good while driving, but I'm just waiting for the day I drive to work and the temps shoot outta the roof

 

Ah, you posted while I was typing my last one :P Not sure it's too bad of a leak atm, I didn't notice a line across the underside of the hood, but it's starting to get dark out. Had to get flashlight last time to check it out. Will have to continue the search tomorrow.

Only bad thing, is the wifes car is outta commission atm, so we are stuck driving my truck atm. It's been doing this squealing for about a week now, and is progressively getting worse day to day it seems. Hopefully, it's safe to drive, as we have no other option atm