Antifreeze Leak -- Ford Says There ISN'T A Problem

[superstarjade]

Hi there, to anyone who can lend some knowledge it would be appreciated.

I have a 1998 4.6L Mustang GT Convertible. I had a HUGE coolant leak, took it to Ford, they fixed the water pump.

After that, I still had a slow leak somewhere. My dash light kept popping on and then popping off. So on and so forth. For a while, I had to keep adding fluid, so I took it back to Ford and they did a pressure check on my system. They told me everything was fine and they don't see any problems. That I probably had a bad cap, bad sensor, or perhaps I just needed to replace the entire resevoire.

Needless to say, I didn't replace it. When i left Ford that day, the light never came back on - Until about a week ago. The light is popping on and off again. I check my level of fluid and it's down about half way. We found a puddle of coolant collected in the "V" of my motor. WHen it leaks to the ground, (if looking at the car) the puddle is towards the front of the car to the left. No one can tell me what is going on, and yet I am still leaking all this fluid.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I am going back to Ford AGAIN this Saturday morning. Thanks!

Brittany

[Herbstang]

May have a cylinder head warped or bad head gasket..Might even have a intake cracked the 1999 intake is prone to breakage Check for a cracked heater core.

[Thomas91169]

perfectly normal, ford designed the system so it leaks.

sounds to me like the infamous cracked manifold.

[Scut95]

i have the same problem on my 95 5.0 and i can't figure out where its coming from

[SpectorV]

the 96 GT's had issues with the plastic upper intake blowing and leaking coolant, this is common. The upgraded upper has aluminum inserts to prevent this. That sounds like what you need.

[nighthawk756]

Quote: Originally Posted by SpectorV the 96 GT's had issues with the plastic upper intake blowing and leaking coolant, this is common. The upgraded upper has aluminum inserts to prevent this. That sounds like what you need.

+1! I think this might be your culprit.

[Lil2kpony]

My intake manifold blew and antifreeze went all over the front of the engine and alternator. Yes, I was hot roddin' when I shouldn't have been.

At first we didn't know where the leak was coming from. We removed the radiator cap and put a garden hose in the radiator. Turned the car on and watched. The "plastic" intake manifold had ruptured on the hot water crossover.

After the intake manifold blew I din't drive it, but had it towed home and to the dealership.

The local Ford dealer replaced the flawed engineering design for free with a re-engineered intake manifold. I was 16 days from the expiration of the allocated repair time. There might have been a class action law suit on this part that forced the re-engineering of the part. You might want to check.

That got me thinking aboutwhat do I really want on my car for the intake manifold. I decided I wanted the Power+Plus Typoon. That was May 2006.

I didn't drive the car to much that summer. I had started working at home. No more commute. Maybe put 500 miles on it in the summer.

At the end of the summer I took the car to some mod specialists. They said the Typhoon was a bad idea. THey had hooled up and had problems with super charging and NO2. I think they said it blew the lower gasket on the intake manifold. They recommended The TrickFlow Track Heat.

That's what's on the car now. Among other mods that were done.

Oh, the car is a 2000 GT Convertible. I still need to take and upload pics. Soon I hope.

Now, the Ford re-engineered intake manifold sits on the shelf in my garage.

Hope this helps,


More info...I re-read your post out loud to my wife and she reminded me of some things that are important!

What you are experiencing is what I went through. They told me it was the sensor. I told them replace the sensor. They told me the whole reservoir needed tol be replaced, the sensor was in the reservoir. (It is a float that goes up and down depending on the heighth of coolant.) I think that was about $300.

Later, I noticed the coolant level was still going down. Took it back in a few months later. This time they said it was the radiator. To replace the stock radiator it cost more than replacing it with a Cobra radiator from FRPP. So, the radiator was replaced with a Cobra ratiator from FRPP. And it holds more fluid.

Then I blew the intake manifold. The real problem was solved - Finally!

Good luck!

Dave

[superstarjade]

Thanks for your post. The last part of your post (what your wife reminded you of) is exactly the road I have gone! Thanks to everyone, because I have found a leak in fact behind my intake manifold. I don't know if it's the actual manifold or the gasket, but the car is over 10 years old so I amt hinking I will go ahead and replace the entire thing if I can afford it. You know?

Thanks again you guys... you have been a great help!