Intermittent coolant leak from front of engine

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stanrob
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Posts: 106
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 3:03 pm
My tercel:: Two 1985 Tercel SR5 4WD, Cal. emission controls, one now a parts car (good engine & transmission, still had full power at 310K), another, a low-rust project car, with 307k miles, from Petros
Location: Wayland, MA, USA

Intermittent coolant leak from front of engine

Post by stanrob »

Surprise #28, this one really discouraging: After about the 20th fully-warmed-up trip in this still-new-to-me 85T4D without any sign of coolant leakage, suddenly it dripped about a cup of coolant onto the pavement, then into the receptacle I then placed there. While it was dripping, I laid down to see where the drips came from. Not the radiator, not any of the hoses or hose connections, but somewhere on or near the driver-side front of the engine. It dripped first on other parts, and from there to the pavement. Too much in the way to see the exact leak site. I'm assuming that what finally stopped the drip was depletion of the usual built-up pressure.

I haven't seen a repeat of this yet, but I assume I will when I've done a fully-warmed-up trip.

Has anyone had this experience, and what could or did you do about it?
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: Intermittent coolant leak from front of engine

Post by Petros »

water pump seal? nothing else in that area that would leak coolant.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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