coolant leak... wheres the leak?

[aaron ash]

Just recently I thought I smelled that all too familiar smell of leaking coolant. I stopped at a gas station and took a look under my car and there it was,a small stream of coolant pouring off of the lip of the transmission fluid pan. The area is very tight and I cannot seem to see where it is leaking from. It is dripping on the side of the engine facing the firewall off of the transmission fluid pan, obviously coming from above, but I am very unfamiliar with the SHO being that I just bought it. Is there a common component that leaks in this area? Perhaps a hose? Is there even a hose here? The leak is below the heads, I think, because I don't see it coming from anywhere blantly visible. Please help me...

 

[shojuan]

It's probably coming from one of the heater hoses. The two shaped hoses coming out of the firewall are clamped to two metal pipes that go under some wiring. The other ends of those metal pipes have a nice crimp connection to some plain 3/4" hose which is then clamped to the engine. I had one of those crimp connections spring a leak recently and the coolant would drip down the metal pipe and appear to be coming from the area you describe. It's kind of a pain to access with the intake manifold on, but that's what I did. If the crimp connection is what failed, you will want to cut the crimp connector off and clamp a new piece of 3/4" hose that you cut to the right length. Unfortunately, the dealer doesn't sell a nice pretty factory crimped piece, but they will probably give you a length of bulk hose to make the repair.

Rick