Unknown leak

Discovered a leak def not coolant. No sign on the garage floor but it has soaked up In the lower part of the bumper in the foam insulation next to the black housing you can see in the pic. It is located in the opening in the lower front bumper drivers side. This car is new to me and I have plenty of learning to do. Any ideas? Also the fluid has a minor foul smell to it.

Check your abs unit.

The windshield washer reservoir is right up front behind the bumper. The reservoir is quite wide (almost as wide as the radiator) but the fill cap and I think the outlets are towards the left side of the car. Maybe it was over filled or the connections have loosened. Easy to check by filling up and see if the level drops. I have never thought of windshield washer fluid as foul smelling; but, if the previous owner never used the washers I expect that it might get a little pungent after 10 or so years!

If it is not the washer reservoir and you don't have a coolant leak, the only other fluidy type stuff up front is the refrigerant from the AC; but, I believe that is gaseous, not liquid at room temperature so there should be nothing wet from the AC system.

Could be refrigerant oil. But most likely abs fluid.

Jinks said:

Could be refrigerant oil. But most likely abs fluid.

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So, now I am legitimately curious. Two people have voted for ABS fluid and I am having a certain amount of difficulty figuring out how fluid from the ABS system could make it that far forward (effectively in front of the radiator based upon the OPs description). I have a 2000 so have not had to deal with the early ABS issues. When the early ABS goes into its always running mode can it foam the fluid up enough that it would spray it that far forward? If that was the case I would think that there would be plenty of evidence under the front hood. Although, I admit that 'minor foul smell' would fit with the ABS fluid, particularly if it hadn't been changed since 1995.

Old Guy said:

So, now I am legitimately curious. Two people have voted for ABS fluid and I am having a certain amount of difficulty figuring out how fluid from the ABS system could make it that far forward (effectively in front of the radiator based upon the OPs description). I have a 2000 so have not had to deal with the early ABS issues. When the early ABS goes into its always running mode can it foam the fluid up enough that it would spray it that far forward? If that was the case I would think that there would be plenty of evidence under the front hood. Although, I admit that 'minor foul smell' would fit with the ABS fluid, particularly if it hadn't been changed since 1995.

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I thought the same thing being the location of the leak. That is directly where the condenser lines attach. But generally speaking, refrigerant oil usually doesn't smell much unless something has burned internally. So it's possible it is either one. The original abs is a foul smelling bitch even when fully functional and working!:biggrin: Mine has never worked. Don't care to fix it. Only upgrade it. It's horrible....

It's def in front of the radiator. It's brownish in color. I tried identifying the source yesterday but couldn't locate one. It doesn't make sense where its coming from. Not sure if it's related , but I do get the abs whine. I did exercise the abs system yesterday so maybe that will sort it out. Can anybody tell me what that little black housing is in the opening shown in the pic in my orginal post?

The black 'thing' on the left side of the opening for the AC condenser? Normally there is a black plastic trim piece in there. Unfortunately, that trim piece is no longer installed on my car because I installed rock / bug shields for the condensers and had to remove the trim piece in order to fit the shields. However, that 'thing' does not look like what I remember the trim piece looking like. I still have the trim piece (never throw away NSX parts - even if they are broken); but, it is stored in a box some where in the garage attic - so not exactly accessible for comparison. Check the passenger side opening in front of the passenger side condenser. If you have a mirror image plastic trim piece in that location, then the 'thing' is probably correct, belongs there and my memory is just bad. The function of the trim piece is to look pretty and probably help direct air flow through the condenser coils.

If the fluid is brown and slightly oily, definitely not washer fluid. If you had ABS fluid that far towards the front of the car, I think the reservoir on the ABS would be low (and you should have evidence of ABS fluid under the front hood). If it were the oil in the refrigerant, then I think you would have lost enough pressure in the air conditioning system that the AC would be close to non operational.