Urgent help! Coolant leak coming from RH side?

Hey, today when driving home in my E39A, I smelt coolant and had over heated! When I popped the bonnet there was coolant steaming from the RH side? I can't see anything on that side to make it leak?
What would be leaking from that side??
Urgent help please??

 

[cheekychimp]

I appreciate that you may not know what has happened here but in order for us to help you, you will need to be more specific. When you say the 'right hand side' are you referring to the passenger's side (i.e. on you right as you stand in front of the car looking into the engine bay)?

If so, the coolant reservoir is located on that side of the car and if you overheat due to another issue, boiling coolant will flow into that reservoir from the radiator until the reservoir reaches capacity. Once that happens, the excess coolant. will flow out of the overflow pipe (located on the filler cap of the reservoir) and get deposited onto the road surface beneath (down by your alternator).

 

Yeah as you stand in front of it! Sorry for confusion, I'm from Australia so didn't want to confuse with passenger/drivers side!

 

I've checked that but the coolant didn't reach the over flow and poor out. Steam was coming from under there, right up where the engine mount is..

 

[cheekychimp]

Yeah actually I just did a ninja edit realizing you are from Australia because you have a RHD car the same as me. In that case I would hazard a guess that you don't have a leak but are just pushing coolant due to another overheating issue.

Did this occur suddenly without any previous issues? If the car has cooled down, do you have sufficient coolant? Are your fans working correctly?

 

[fuel]

to me the RH side is the JDM/Aus/NZ/UK drivers side - ie as you would view it sitting in the drivers seat!

If you are talking about the passenger side on a RHD vehicle then you have your water pump on that side of the engine also.

 

[cheekychimp]

If you are home safely can you start the car and idle it assuming you have coolant and (a) see if you are actually overheating (i.e. check the temp gauge) and (b) see if by watching carefully you can see where the steam originates.

If you are not pushing coolant then yes you probably do have a leak and you aren't actually overheating yet unless you start to lose too much coolant that way.

Water pipe and water pump (as Phil suggested) are a good place to start.

 

Yea the cars been running sweet, it just did it today in the way home from work!
You'll have to bare with me as this is my 1st import after owning 3 Holden V8's! Haha
I noticed the temp gauge was jus before red when I pulled over to check I noticed the stem. Lucky I wasn't far from home cause by that time it had cooled down enough for me to get home!
There wasn't much water in the over flow and I only jus filled the radiator a couple of weeks ago and there was plenty of water in there then..
So assuming its the water pump, could it possibly be the water pump hose has split?
I've never had to poke around under there so This small squished up engine bay is a lot different to working on to the V8's!!

 

[cheekychimp]

Did you lose a lot of coolant though? If you almost topped out the gauge it suggests you lost a fair bit. Did you look at the reservoir as soon as you opened the bonnet? i.e. are you sure the coolant didn't reach the reservoir?

 

Yeah the radiator was dry, I've been parking on grass lately so I wouldn't off been able to see leak! Plus I start super early so wouldn't off see leak at work either! When I pull over there were drips of coolant coming from that side..

 

[raptorWagon]

Quoting fuel:
to me the RH side is the JDM/Aus/NZ/UK drivers side - ie as you would view it sitting in the drivers seat!

If you are talking about the passenger side on a RHD vehicle then you have your water pump on that side of the engine also.



In reality the Right side of the car will always be that side and the left side is the RHD passenger/LHD Driver's side. It's always from the driver's perspective on how you look at things. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[RayH]

Check for pinhole leaks in the hoses that run to/from the throttle body or thermostat especially around the clamps. Sometimes they'll only leak under pressure/when hot.

 

How hard is it to replace the water pump? Gonna give it a crack today and see what's happening down there!

 

[donkeylips]

The water pump is one of the biggest jobs... You need to take the timing belt off.

I've had the small hoses that go from the water pipe or thermostat housing to the throttle body leak countless times now. It's usually pretty obvious though.

Has anybody actually had the water pipe itself leak?

 

Yeah great been looking at how much fun it's goin to be... Dammm this east/west motor set ups!!

 

[LordAthey]

I had the water pipe leak the oring went out and was a PITA to change out

 

Was the water pump guys!! Cheers heaps for all the help!!!

 

[DR1665]

Wish I'd seen this sooner. Water pump would have been my first guess on that side. Had one go on me like that.

Glad to hear you got it sorted.