The_Remora

Update: Got to work on it today, looking around and was going to pressurize system (that free system pressure tester loan/rental at local autozone is a GREAT thing to know about thx for suggestion), but before i got that far a deteriorated hose coupler fell apart as I was scoping out the hoses and connections around the heater valve under the airbox. The plastic connector had just crumbled... overdue for system refresh. Pics below. Thanks again for help with this guys.
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Went to drive my 9-2-8 this morning and was greeted by an ugly puddle of oil on the floor of the garage. This doesn't look good... could be from blown head gasket? Or maybe something not quite so bad? Maybe you guys can help me preliminary troubleshoot this.

First a little background and context. I've been daily driving this car off and on for years. I hadn't planned to drive it much this winter but ended up pretty much daily driving it thru the winter. This car has been running GREAT. Even last drive until i shut the motor off, ran smooth, tons of power, been a champ for me. I live in the city and park it in spot i own i residential garage that is hard to do much work on it there, i take it to my folks garage where i have my tools to do maintenance. Had just worked on it this past weekend at folks place, minor stuff not relating to engine.

It's had a slight oil drip from front drivers side area that had made a <1' dia puddle where i park, which i figured i'd look for and fix later this spring when i do some other maintenance. Lost maybe a quart this entire winter over a couple thousand miles. Just a couple weeks ago I also started getting low coolant warning light, but was only down an inch in the reservoir, topped that off, about a week later it was down a bit more. Looked under car last weekend and could see a drop of coolant at bottom of motor general area below reservoir and figured would need to replace some relatively cheap coolant system parts soon too. Also checked oil this past weekend which was near bottom of dipstick so added enough to bring to half way up on dipstick. I normally never use Mobile-1, but this time i did because some was handy and just needed to add relatively small amount. I've been planning to change oil and coolant this spring anyway and use 928 appropriate stuff. So everything seems great, car drove like an elegant beast on 70 mile trip back to Boston Sunday night as well as up until i parked in garage last night. But then this happened...

I see this puddle and think oh **** the leak just became major issue. But then i looked under car and doesnt seem to be dripping oil from same spot, this appears farther back under flywheel/clutch area, but hard to tell exactly. So I checked the oil, and level seems HIGHER on the dipstick than when last filled it. So either i had brain fart and hadnt put dipstick all the way down when checking/adding oil last weekend and overfilled it, or its floating on something.. I then checked the coolant level and it is down about an inch or so lower than when i topped it off last... Radiator is few year old C&R from 928International, so doubt things are mixing in there but who knows. When last drove and parked the car seemed running great, no indication that anything was amiss. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but that's an awfully big puddle of oil now on the floor and too much coincidence that oil rose and coolant dropped... Hard to much on further work where it's at. Could probably lift it up high enough to loosen drain plug to see if coolant comes out first. If it does then need to flat-bed it either to folks garage until i have time to work on it or to a shop and hope bearings were spared. Sorry for long post but this scared the hell outta me this morning. What would you guys look for next to troubleshoot and see what I'm likely in for? Attached a few pics














Thanks in advance for any insights here.

Kevin in Atlanta

Powersteering fluid level ok?

Bilal928S4

Check the rear heater valve & short hose.
Check the coolant tank for cracks or the coolant cap.

Mark Anderson

A leaking slave cylinder hose

The_Remora

Thanks fellas, putting these on my check list.

Bilal928S4

Also if you have not done the upper intake refresh, the oil spout gasket and the water bridge gasket leak will give you the same mess.
You can check that by seeing if there is any fluid in the valley.

The Fixer

Hey Remora,

Oil can really wick over the surface of a dusty garage floor.
That is a lot in one night though.

If you stop by your local home improvement store or hardware, you can buy disposable white plastic paint tray inserts (maybe 4) they are about $1 ea.
and lay them underneath to catch the dripping oil.

This will help you determine where the drip is originating (to a degree) and what type of oil or fluid it is.

Looks to have a redish color, hydraulic fluid. I would look at the slave as Mr. Anderson recommends.

That or power steering fluid.

Good luck and nice S4!-Matt

The_Remora

Thank you guys! Great advice I will take. Much appreciated.

Landseer

You can tell by tasting. Just don't taste much of it.

White Lightnin'

...or smelling it.

Courtshark

That looks too "wet" to be oil; oil alone would never expand that much, especially in one night, unless your pan was cracked and dumped everything out. Based on the location of the majority of the fluid, I think you have two leaks - 1 from your coolant reservoir or a cracked hose, and 1 from your master cylinder, possibly the infamous blue hose. Power steering doesn't make sense to me because the reservoir is much further forward than the leak spot. Could come from the pump or rack I suppose. Is your front belly pan off the car? The rear obviously is.

Good luck!

The_Remora

Yes both front and rear pans are off. They weren't on the car when i got it and I never replaced them. Agreed it really sounds like she's suddenly developed multiple leaks

Not sure I could identify by taste as I've never tasted power steering or brake fluid before

Courtshark

OK. I asked about the pans because those can actually make it a challenge to find a leak source as they redirect the leaking fluid.

Does the fluid spot have any sort of red tinge (PS fluid)? What kind of brake fluid do you use (usually gold, but possibly blue)? Does it smell like maple syrup (spent coolant)?

The_Remora

I went down to the garage with a much better light this morning (yesterday just had light from cell phone and the garage is quite dark) and well it sure looks like pure coolant, at least the big puddle. Very hard to discern where it's dripping from though. Rechecked the oil and it's not that high on the stick so maybe there isn't the coolant in the oil that I'd feared, and the oil looks gold, clean and unfrothed, so that's encouraging. Still perplexed as to how the level rose ~half a quart since i checked after last adding oil... I also checked the other fluids and the steering fluid was down just a small fraction of an inch (probably what I see slip dripping from steering rack bolts) but not enough to be making puddles, and the brake fluid was at the full line. So now just need to figure out where this coolant leak is from.

I looked under oil filler and intake manifold and didn't see any fluid puddling up there, looked dry in the valley as far as I could see. Looked dry around the water pump too. In the above pic i posted at bottom front of motor by the tensioner, looks like there's a bit of coolant dripping along there. Maybe from freeze plug on block?
Attached a few more pics of the fluid, which is obviously green in the light I shined on it, and felt consistent with fresh coolant (i double checked against fresh in bottle). It's a lot more 'oily' feeling than I'd recalled which threw me off when i felt it in the dark. I didn't want to taste it...



I'll jack the car up and drain just a tiny bit of oil to make sure there's no coolant in the bottom of the sump, just for peace of mind. And keep searching for the leak... If the oil checks out then I'll at least have the confidence to drive it (with spare coolant while carefully watching temp gauge) to where I can get in on jackstands so I can get under there to do some work. I'm guessing block plug at this point, and I need to flush and change the coolant anyway soon, so that wouldn't be a big deal to do. At least I hope its something like that. Thanks for the continued suggestions and wish me luck.

Chalkboss

You should check the short hose at the heater valve.