Zookie

I have a weird thing going on with my car. My car leaks coolant ONLY when I idle it for extended period of time. No leak when driving or parked after a drive, only when idling for 30mins or so. Last night it happened again and leaked out quite a bit of coolant so now my LOW COOLANT Light came on.

What could it be? Bad Cap? or Cracked Tank?

my car is a 04 C4S with 195k with Original Tank but the Cap was replaced once under warranty and is my daily beater

Topaz330ci

Idling for 30 min seems excessive in general, but hey....

I noticed one of my hose's that was connected to the tank was seeping ever so slowly, once I wiggled the hose, it instantly came off and the hose itself was the problem....

GL on the fix!

Neb

Do you see it on the floor? or burnt off on exhaust? Might want to have it up and look underneath and check all the hoses. I had a similar issue last summer, and got a new cap and it seems to be ok.

Zookie

well not when its Below 0 outside and a girl is on top of you, I guess my car "came" too , thats what she said

no no like a puddle on the floor, I didn't notice any coolant in the little pocket where the cap goes...

Capt. Obvious

I'm trying to understand how this would even work. I can barely sit in my car by myself, let alone with a girl in/on/around me. Are you 4'11" and a yoga instructor?

Zookie

no passenger seat, I have roll cage :P and she does Yoga, I starfish, it was difficult but successful and the comfort seats helps the process

Renoir

We had a similar issue in the wife's 996.2 C4 Cab, it turned out to be as small crack in the plastic tank.

Macster

Could be from a number of places. Generally a leak from the coolant tank or cap makes itself known when the engine is shut off with the coolant hot. One way to know this is to drive the car around until it is fully up to temperature then park in your driveway and raise the engine RPMS say to 1500 and hold until you hear/feel or someone tells you the radiator fans come on. Oh, have the A/C off. The fans coming on tells the engine coolant temp is (based on my observations) 212F.

Shut off the engine. The heat load in the engine will raise the coolant temp and pressure and if there is a leak anywhere it will probably show up with wet coolant, make that hot wet coolant at least seeping out.

You can open the engine compartment and watch the coolant cap for any signs of moisture and carefully check what you can of the coolant tank for any leak sign. Often though the leak is on the bottom.

Another source of a leak -- especially with the engine running -- is the water pump. To really check this out you need the car in the air. You can drive the car around get it up to temp then let it idle on the lift and in the air for say the 30 minutes then check the water pump area for any leak sign. While you are under the car check what hoses/fittings you can find too along with the radiators.

Be careful. There are a lot of hot moving parts under the car when the engine is idling.

5CHN3LL

Where under the car is the coolant pooling? Common locations include Left front tire, right front tire, right rear tire, under the left rear exhaust tip...

Zookie

left rear end of the car if where its leaking from, its not the water pump or thermostat area, I looked underneath and it was dry there, but my left exhaust tip has coolant crust on it, so from reading I think its the 10 year old coolant tank I have.

5CHN3LL

That's where mine leaked when it was time to replace the tank.

Capt. Obvious

I still have no idea how that would work. I've been using my imagination pretty heavily for the last 10 minutes trying to figure this out and all I have to show for it is an awkward erection.

Zookie

yea that's what I thought thanks!! how old was your Tank when replaced?

dude ok ill take a Selfie next time

basically on the passenger seat, all the way back and down, she's on top cowgirl and she grabs the rollcage to help herself move, its not that hard to imagine. oh the sunroof open so she can pop her head out time to time

5CHN3LL

The tank had been in the car for 14 years...but my car only has ~60K miles, so it's done fewer heat cycles than yours...

Zookie

yea I guess you are right, how yellow was your tank? mine is not that yellow