Leaking Coolant

[rednsx2]

Hello,
Driving home from work today, coolent started steaming out from the engine bay. It is not the coolant bottle. After jacking up the car it looks like it is pouring out somewhere above the oil filter. So if you were looking at the engine bay from the passenger side, it is on the left side of the engine. Are there any coolant hoses around there?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[klr01tlr]

Maybe an oil cooler hose or the dreaded water pump.

 

[Racerxjling]

Think it is the water pump as well. You might want to post more details incl. year of car, mileage, and pertinent maintenance.

Jeff

 

[drew]

Lets get some metrics down (assume you have US spec car)
RIGHT = passenger side of car
LEFT = driver side of car

The engine has a REAR and FRONT bank.

Now, from your description it sounds like the Right/Rear part of the engine is leaking coolant?

Q: Is it leaking ABOVE/OVER the filter or BEHIND it?

There IS a hose on the Right/Rear part of the engine that probably never gets changed because the oil filter housing has to be removed. (this is an easy 2 hour job. $20 in parts)

If it is leaking above it, it sounds like your water pump. (difficult and expensive, a new timing belt is in your future!)

Drew

 

[rednsx2]

It is a 1991 NSX with the Timing Belt and Water pump replace about 2 years ago at 89,000 miles.
The car has 99,300 miles now.

 

[drew]

It is a 1991 NSX with the Timing Belt and Water pump replace about 2 years ago at 89,000 miles.

I'm sorry, you can tell the coolant leak all about it. It means very little now.

**

Can you answer question in my previous post: we need a better description of the leak.

Drew

 

[rednsx2]

Drew,

My car is the US spec so the passanger side of the car. I can't see exactly where the coolant is coming from. The coolant was steaming from the Rear bank. With the plastic covers covering the engine, I can't see exactly where the coolant is coming from. From the bottem of the car, it was running down off the oil filter. It is easy enough to remove the covers to look closer?

 

[Briank]

Your best bet would be to but the car up on jack stands and remove the right wheel and take a look. It's most likely some thing you can't repair yourself so just have the car hauled to the dealer. Never drive an NSX with a leaking cooling system.

 

[rednsx2]

I put it up on stands last night and took the wheel off. I will take a look again tonight.

 

[Larry Bastanza]

Above the oil filter there are two small hoses for the oil cooler assy. Sure sounds like one of those. If you have headers the odds go up it is one of those. Ask Russ about turn #9 at the Glen.

HTH,
LarryB

 

[rednsx2]

Larry,

I have looked at the area again and it does look like it is one of the hoses to the oil cooler assy. I'm calling a tow truck to take it to the dealer this morning.

Thanks to everyone for their help. =)

 

[drew]

Dood, those hoses are extremely easy to replace. You need a socket wrench, a torque wrench and razor blade.

You're gonna spend more time and effort just waiting for the tow truck than replacing the hoses.

Two hoses, a figure 8 seal, two bolts, a quart of oil and some coolant. One hour. Done deal.

Drew

 

[rednsx2]

Drew,

It looked easy, but I wanted to make sure it was done right. It is fixed now.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[klr01tlr]

So, what was leaking and replaced?

 

[rednsx2]

It was the coolant hose right above the oil filter. The dealership did the job in about 2 hours.

 

[Doc308]

Drew--for this job, one needs to remove the oil filter pedastal? It sounds that way from your description of neded parts. Just curious.

 

[drew]

one needs to remove the oil filter pedastal?

You MUST, impossible to do otherwise---and I tried very hard not to remove it. Those two hoses were also the softest of the 23 that I replaced....felt like a soft balloon.

The figure-eight seal also starts to weep, so if you have built up gunk on the filter base and you've never replaced the hoses...might as well do it soon.

There are two bolts with what appears to be a thread lock compound on it...those are the ones that should be replaced.

Drew

 

[Larry Bastanza]

Actually you do not need to replace the two upper bolts. These two upper bolts for the oil filter pedastal thread into an oil galley in the crankcase. You can reuse the original bolts by applying Hondabond to the threads and torqueing then up correctly.

When I replace the hoses I do the upper hose first LEAVING the lower (short) hose in place. It is a little tight, but if you remove both you run into the possibility of damaging the oil sender wiring, and most importantly the rubber seal on the sender, that you cannot buy separately. So with the lower hose in place I replace the upper, then once that is clamped on, I replace the lower shorty. I use "Jack's" O-ring silicone grease, wonderful to help slip the hoses on.

Russ Selarno did a nice write up in a thread here, and mentions about long pliers that really helped.

HTH,
LarryB