hoses look good, but after driving, i pop the hood and theres coolant sprayed all over. I put stop leak in a few days ago and well, it hasn't worked. I cleaned everything off to try and see where it was coming from, but I cant tell. theres coolant on the air filter box, the manifold cover, the battery, the fuse box, and the horn and I'm not sure if its the cap, (cheap fix) to the actual radiator. Any advice? its a 1997 with 221k miles

 

spray the engine down with water to get the coolant off, run the car parked until it gets warm, and see where its coming from

if you have a plastic top radiator, my bet is your radiator is leaking and the coolant hit the fans and sprayed allover

 

If it's leaking that bad you should be able to see where it's coming from. When the car has reached operating temp. Open the hood and look around. Since you said the battery has coolant I would suspect you upper hose might be the culprit, look under the air intake that leads to front of car. The upper radiation around the cap is made of plastic and this area tend to crack over time, check there also.

 

replace radiator. I wouldn't recommend all those stop-this stop-that stuff to be poured and block-up the system.

 

Too many possibilities here. Do what the previou post suggest and wash off the area with water and warm up and watch parked for where leak occurs. There are coolant pipes and lines that run on the same side as the air duct.

 

ok ill do that. is it worth it to try and find the leak in the radiator? since i cant fix it? or should i just grab a whole new radiator and put it in

 

Also check the hoses. I had an engine swapped into an old car of mine, and they swapped it in with dry-rotted hoses. Ended up spraying coolant on my engine block and making it smoke like hell -.-

 

I got a leak in my radiator also its right at the top on the side. Looks like the previous owner tried to patch it up but still drips once car is warmed up. I just keep an eye on the coolant tank and add every four days or so til i get a new one.

 

Honestly... replace radiator.. same thing happend to me a year ago in my old max.... the plastic resevoir usually gets a hairline crack near the filler and is barely noticeable...after driving it runs all the contours off EVERYTHING under the hood and is sprayed around...

 

REALLY, dude get a new radiator..you can get the dual cores cheap. You are dumping this stuff on the ground if you are having to "top it off" every four days. I'm not a tree hugger but come on! This is I believe in some sort of inspections of vehicles.

Most common leak with our radiators is that top plastic cap. I went through two before I bought the aluminum one I have. Best $150.00 I could have spent!

 

alright so sounds like im going to check my hoses and tank, watch the tank and ultimately throw a new radiator in.
right?

 

sounds like the plan...very easy change.

 

I agree wuth this post just get a new radiator and problem solved. I did that with my 97 GLE i got a new radiator for $70 bucks and i changed it very easy to do

 

yep, check the hoses.

i would go for a all-metal radiator, i know Mishimoto still makes them for 4th gens. theyre $250-$300 but theyre a million times better than the crappy plastic top radiators

 

Isn't the OE top also platic? My OE held up for 14 years.

 

My OE held up until this year(I have a 96 so thats 16yrs) and I replaced with a Mishimoto. Very please and you can find them for about $240 if you look hard enough

 

OE are plastic, some last a long time but eventually again youre gonna get spider cracks on the plastic and whatnot. all-metal radiators mean no leaking like that to worry about

 

sounds like a plan

 

I recommend spending a little more for a Koyo or Mishimoto all aluminum radiator.

 

make sure you get one with a FORGED TITANIUM DRAIN PLUG. so you dont crossthread it all the time like SHOCKNAWE does.



















JK LOL

 

this would be your best bet to figure out where the leak is coming from