as stated, 96 ex with a five speed.
Cars got hella miles on it.
Had to do a major overhaul about a year and a half ago, replaced the following:
radiator & both hoses
water pump
timing belt
head gasket
clutch
bunch of little crap I either broke or lost taking the engine out in my driveway
Now... after a nother heavy replace session involving both axels and ball joints, she's back in the road again...... and losing coolant.
This thing gets a lot of wear put on it. Wife's familiy lives 170 miles away and I've got two kids in therapy and seeing specialists 80 miles away every week. With no funds in place for a more reliable ride anytime soon.
It sat awaiting money for parts for the front end redo for about a month (with me bumming vehicals away from my parents, who repeated assured me it was "only because of their grandkids" that they were doing this.). Got the axles and joints on it rode like newerish, (amazing what a diff new ball joints makes, man!). Did good for about three weeks, started smelling antifreeze inside about the time my wife started cranking the heater up.
Initially it was just the smell, wasn't actually losing enough fluid to be alarmed yet. Just another red flag in the back of my head signifying something to fix. Two nights ago it lost quite abit while my wife was on another of our hour long journeys. She pulled off into a gas station, let it cool, filled it with water, drove it home.
Today I got up, got in... thought I'd better top off the radiator, do so. Pulled out... realized I forgot something, went back into my drive to see a big, alarming puddle. Cut it off and stuck my head under it to see coolant rapidly dripping from the exhaust. (Driveway on a hill, car tilted backwards).
I'm pretty familure with finding coolant leaks under the hood now... but aside from the big "smelling it inside the car" hint, how else could I check or test the heater? Really hate to tear the dash all to peices without knowing for sure.
Thx guys.
Cars got hella miles on it.
Had to do a major overhaul about a year and a half ago, replaced the following:
radiator & both hoses
water pump
timing belt
head gasket
clutch
bunch of little crap I either broke or lost taking the engine out in my driveway
Now... after a nother heavy replace session involving both axels and ball joints, she's back in the road again...... and losing coolant.
This thing gets a lot of wear put on it. Wife's familiy lives 170 miles away and I've got two kids in therapy and seeing specialists 80 miles away every week. With no funds in place for a more reliable ride anytime soon.
It sat awaiting money for parts for the front end redo for about a month (with me bumming vehicals away from my parents, who repeated assured me it was "only because of their grandkids" that they were doing this.). Got the axles and joints on it rode like newerish, (amazing what a diff new ball joints makes, man!). Did good for about three weeks, started smelling antifreeze inside about the time my wife started cranking the heater up.
Initially it was just the smell, wasn't actually losing enough fluid to be alarmed yet. Just another red flag in the back of my head signifying something to fix. Two nights ago it lost quite abit while my wife was on another of our hour long journeys. She pulled off into a gas station, let it cool, filled it with water, drove it home.
Today I got up, got in... thought I'd better top off the radiator, do so. Pulled out... realized I forgot something, went back into my drive to see a big, alarming puddle. Cut it off and stuck my head under it to see coolant rapidly dripping from the exhaust. (Driveway on a hill, car tilted backwards).
I'm pretty familure with finding coolant leaks under the hood now... but aside from the big "smelling it inside the car" hint, how else could I check or test the heater? Really hate to tear the dash all to peices without knowing for sure.
Thx guys.