Finding Coolant Leaks
I covered most of this in the Overheat Article, but I’ll cover it again here. The best way to find coolant leaks is with a cooling system pressure tester. This is a tool that you place on the opening of the cooling system, usually in place of the radiator cap, where you pump pressure into the system. Your cooling system is designed to hold pressure. If it can’t hold pressure, it probably has a leak. When you pressurize the system with the tool, the coolant will leak out where you have a pressure loss.
Most leaks are external, but sometimes there’s an internal leak. You use different testing to find these, but the pressure test will get you started. Much of this material is covered in the Solving Overheating Issues article. You might also find this video useful.
Video Title: Finding Coolant Leaks- Finding and Fixing Fluid Leaks -EricTheCarGuy Video Description: The best way to find coolant leaks is with a cooling system pressure tester. This is a tool that you place on the opening of the cooling system.. Thumbnail: http://www.ericthecarguy.com/images/faq_buttons/leaks/Finding_and_Fixing_Fluid_Leaks_850.png
1 thought on “Finding Coolant Leaks”
Steven g
April 19, 2020 at 2:48 am
Ive got a 98 honda civic D16y8
I keep losing coolant every other week i have to add coolant, bleed the system. Week later bomb gets hot i check im not seeing coolant. The hoses, radiator, water pump nothing is leaking. Did a block test came back good. No coolant in oil and vice versa. Did a pressure test its losing pressure, but i dont see a leak. Did a compession test its good i even took off the rad cap to see for bubbles nothing. I though maybe heater core no smell inside, floors dry, windows dont fog up, and heats hot tell its low on coolant aka coolants needed for it to work. Now my to ideas would be headgasket because maybe the leaks just being tricky. Or other option the intake gasket cause there is a coolant passage there. Now the check engine code history. I was getting a p0300, p0301, p0302 and p0304. For awhile its not my ignition system check it all it great. Now i did recently get a lean code it ended up being oxygen sensor bank 1 sensor 1. Changed it no check engine light its been a month now. But i still em losing coolant i do see drops of water from exhaust whem throttled. But it could be condensation cause it doesnt smell sweet at all. I need some advice