sup guys i posted earlier this week about my car smoking a little and coolant leaking out. i tried filling the tank back up with some coolant and water. took it for a test drive and the car still got hot. took it back home and the coolant started to leak all out again. so im thinking theres a leak and was wondering how much it would cost to fix. thanks

 

that all depends on where it's coming from. rent a pressure tester from autozone or pep boys and pressure the system. that will help you determine where the leak is coming from.

 

It could be your water pump froze up or the water pump belt is gone and the car is boiling out every time.

 

any idea how much it would cost to fix this. just a ball park figure.

 

Don;t drive until you can get a compress/leakdown test done, head gasket maybe.

 

Smoke? What color -- black or white? How's it smell?

 

mr hahns; First of all tell us what yr and eng. This can help us to help you. When you are in the drivers seat looking forward ,what side is the leak coming from or where do you see the coolant on the ground, pass side or drivers side,front or rear of the eng.?

 

white smoke smells like burning plastic. its a 85 944 its coming from the front side of the passenger. the smoke also comes from the front.

 

white smoke smells like burning plastic. its a 85 944 its coming from the front side of the passenger. the smoke also comes from the front.

 

white smoke smells like burning plastic. its a 85 944 its coming from the front side of the passenger. the smoke also comes from the front.

 

My bet would be that "white smoke" is your coolant steaming off. If you said it smelled "sweet" then it definitely would have been coolant. It's coming out your tailpipe b/c you have a blown headgasket -- not sure why it's coming out the front however (another leak somewhere?)

When you said "coolant started to leak all out again" was that from the reservoir --perhaps through the overflow pipe? That would also be consistent with a blown headgasket (you building up pressure from an engine cylinder.)

I hope I'm wrong, but do get a second opinion. This is exactly what happened to me this summer. Repairing the headgasket is very labor intensive (wouldn't be surpised to get a quote of $1500-ish from a shop). Moreover, you need to figure out why it blew -- doesn't just happen on its own. Head gaskets are meant to blow before something worse happens. And see if it's caused additional damage someplace else. I ended up with a scorched #3 cylinder and just ditching my motor.

 

Do you know for sure that it's coming out of the exhaust pipe itself? If you are losing coolant and it's turning to steam on the way out of the hose hitting something very hot like the exhaust, it can come out of the back of the car while you're driving and look like it's out of the exhaust, but it's not. Pursue that angle first...if you don't know that it was coming out of the exhaust, I'd definitely wonder about maybe the heater hose going into the firewall breaking and pouring coolant down right on your exhaust. If this is the case, it's not too difficult a fix.

I had a hose break on the interstate once and it blew coolant into a huge steam cloud behind the car in my old Supra. It looked like it could have come out of the exhaust, but it really wasn't. If you have steam/white smoke coming out from under the hood, I'm going to guess a broken hose first rather than go for the head gasket.

Look for drops on the ground, green or other stains under the hood and if you can't, definitely pressure test to see where the leak is coming from.

Good luck!

 

Oh, it takes a LOT to bleed the air out of these cars....once you get air in the system, expect it to boil over some if you just add coolant and don't bleed it....been there, done that.

 

Ah, true -- if the smoke isn't out from the back, then it's probably not the gasket. Anyways, it comes down to locating the leak. Good luck!

 

i have an 85 and i experienced>>>my passenger side fan cut into my coolant hose>>>>this made the coolant spray everywhere like onto the exhaust and smoke but i had coolant everywhere under the hood