Leaking Antifreeze somewhere

External Since: Jul 27, 2006 Posts: 1

I own a 97 ford taurus...It's got about 147,000 miles on it... FOr the past
month i've suddenly had an issue with it. After 2 years of owning it. The
problem started 3 months ago when i drove from my parents house to mine a
good 2 hour drive... my car ran fine. Stopped at the house to drop my luggage
off and left to do some errands. While i was driving to the grocery store i
noticed my car wanting to overheat. I checked and i had no antifreeze in my
reserve tank... SO i filled it up... The guy at the hardware store i went to
said maybe i have a leak so he gave me some stop leak product... Said to run
it through. I did that and my car seemed to run fine for the next couple of
mnths. Now about 2 weeks ago i had left to go to work but realized i forgot
something came back home and shut the car off so i could use my keys to get
inside, came back out and my car wouldn't start. I waited about 30 minutes
before it finally started... And once again it acted like it wanted to
overheat. I more antifreeze in it and seemed fine.. well at the middle of
last week i noticed that it is leaking the antifreeze out steadily. I put
some in it yesterday morning, in my reserve tank, let my car sit for about an
hour and when i came back out it was half empty. would this not mean that
the leak is probably in my reserve tank or in a hose leading to the radiator?
I'm curious for advice b/c i know from experience most mechanics see me as a
naive 23yr old female and try to tell me things are wrong when their not...
I know enough about cars to know that a hole in your muffler will not cost
you 500 like one mechanic told me before~! If you could help i would
appreciate it~!!

External Since: Mar 23, 2005 Posts: 92

On 2006-07-27 06:56:40 -0700, "lucky_clover82" said:

> I own a 97 ford taurus...It's got about 147,000 miles on it... FOr the past
> month i've suddenly had an issue with it. After 2 years of owning it. The
> problem started 3 months ago when i drove from my parents house to mine a
> good 2 hour drive... my car ran fine. Stopped at the house to drop my luggage
> off and left to do some errands. While i was driving to the grocery store i
> noticed my car wanting to overheat. I checked and i had no antifreeze in my
> reserve tank... SO i filled it up... The guy at the hardware store i went to
> said maybe i have a leak so he gave me some stop leak product... Said to run
> it through. I did that and my car seemed to run fine for the next couple of
> mnths. Now about 2 weeks ago i had left to go to work but realized i forgot
> something came back home and shut the car off so i could use my keys to get
> inside, came back out and my car wouldn't start. I waited about 30 minutes
> before it finally started... And once again it acted like it wanted to
> overheat. I more antifreeze in it and seemed fine.. well at the middle of
> last week i noticed that it is leaking the antifreeze out steadily. I put
> some in it yesterday morning, in my reserve tank, let my car sit for about an
> hour and when i came back out it was half empty. would this not mean that
> the leak is probably in my reserve tank or in a hose leading to the radiator?
> I'm curious for advice b/c i know from experience most mechanics see me as a
> naive 23yr old female and try to tell me things are wrong when their not...
> I know enough about cars to know that a hole in your muffler will not cost
> you 500 like one mechanic told me before~! If you could help i would
> appreciate it~!!
Let's see... if you don't see any phsical evidence of the leak (like a
puddle of water under your car) the coolant is probably leaking INTO
your engine and being consumed during the combustion process. A leaking
head gasket will display the symptoms you describe. The head gasket is
the gasket between the head and the engine block. If it leaks it can
allow engine collant to enter the combusion chamber(s). Oftentimes,
this will cause the car to overheat. You might see smoke (actually
steam) coming out your exhaust pipe. Anyhow, there are some
straightforward (and cheap) methods to determine if this is your
problem. It could be more serious but this would be a good place to
start. Good luck and post your results.
jor