Anti freeze under my hottie?

[Kyras]

I took my 2005 NSX to Cars and Coffee and Pacific Whey this morning. On the way home I stopped at Costco to see about tire prices for my rear tires on the NSX and my S2000. I came out and there was a trail of antifreeze running out from under the front end of the NSX. The temp gauge was fine.

Drove it the 9 miles home and once again, it was dripping antifreeze on the driveway, but not as much and the temp was still fine (just under 1/2). The radiator overflow tank is empty.

I did a search on Prime and am guessing I have a leaking radiator hose. Sound about right? Sounds like there's a lot of them. My NSX only has 26,389 miles but it is 7 years old, now. I'm guessing from what I read that the wise thing to do is to have Ramon change all the coolant hoses.

Any opinions or advice for me?

Thank you,

Patty

 

[racer9x]

Rubber will deteriorate over time and become brittle as well as plastic so I would suspect the hose's or coolant reservoir (plastic container might have a crack).
off topic is that some sort of eliptical exercise equipment that actually functions as a bike, if so that is neat; Good luck with the leak, im sure the crowd will chime in and it will be fine in no time:smile:

 

[Briank]

Are you sure its coolant or not just water from the AC ? At 7 years you can change all the hoses but I would find and fix the leak ASAP and save changing all the hoses for when you do the timing belt service. Overheating your NSX is a very bad thing to do and can easily wreck your engine $$$$$. Any coolant leaks should be addressed right away, yes you should not be driving your car until its fixed.

 

[junior40er]

Touch the liquid and smell it. You will know if its coolant. I'm thinking its AC condensation.

 

[Track Addict]

Patty, I am going to say that you should have Ramon look at your car and I would arise against drivin it any further to avoid cavitating the water pump. I would guess that your reservoir is probably due for a change, but can't know for sure without seeing it. Your hoses should be OK unless you've had some work done recently where they may have been disturbed.

Call Ramon and see what he thinks (isn't in the shop until Tuesday) but that is my recommendation.

 

[Kyras]

Thank you, guys for chiming in. :smile:

Yes, I'm sure it's not A/C condensation. I can smell the antifreeze and it was more than just the drip seen with that. The overflow container is in the back with the engine but the leak is dead center under the front.

Since it wasn't over heating at all and I only live about 7 miles from Ramon's shop, I'll see if he can check it out on Tuesday, and I'll drive it there.

 

[Kyras]

Rubber will deteriorate over time and become brittle as well as plastic so I would suspect the hose's or coolant reservoir (plastic container might have a crack).
off topic is that some sort of eliptical exercise equipment that actually functions as a bike, if so that is neat; Good luck with the leak, im sure the crowd will chime in and it will be fine in no time:smile:

http://www.elliptigo.com/

Yes, racer9x, that's exactly what it is; an elliptical bicycle. If you go to ^their website and hit the arrow you can see it in motion. I love it! I currently ride mine 33.5 miles, three times a week. My back is trashed and I couldn't take running any more and this the next best thing. I had an 8-speed I bought last September and then turned it in to Performance Bikes where I got it and upgraded to the 11-speed, last December, when they came out.

 

[RedWings]

Agree on not driving it if you are sure its antifreeze.

might have taken a rock hit in the radiator, leaky connection or bad hose
(believe you have 3 that run in the tunnel from front to back, others can confirm)

Should be pretty easy to check it out and find the drip source, squeeze a few hoses and see if any obvious fluid leaks reveal themselves.

 

[Kyras]

Agree on not driving it if you are sure its antifreeze.

might have taken a rock hit in the radiator, leaky connection or bad hose
(believe you have 3 that run in the tunnel from front to back, others can confirm)

Should be pretty easy to check it out and find the drip source, squeeze a few hoses and see if any obvious fluid leaks reveal themselves.

Thank you, RedWings. Just as I was turning on my PC I wondered about hoses in the front. My guess it that one is leaking when the car is hot.

 

[Kyras]

Are you sure its coolant or not just water from the AC? At 7 years you can change all the hoses but I would find and fix the leak ASAP and save changing all the hoses for when you do the timing belt service. Overheating your NSX is a very bad thing to do and can easily wreck your engine $$$$$. Any coolant leaks should be addressed right away, yes you should not be driving your car until its fixed.

Touch the liquid and smell it. You will know if its coolant. I'm thinking its AC condensation.

You guys were right. I took it to Ramon and he checked it out thoroughly. Nothing was leaking, and there was no evidence of any leaks whatsoever from the coolant lines. Right where I saw the drips falling is where the a/c condenser water drops. :redface: Oh, and the overflow bottle for the coolant has coolant right up to the max line, like it should. :redface::redface:

I'm glad I was wrong. It sure smelled like antifreeze. Ramon and Johnny(?) both told me that if it's coolant it won't evaporate fast like it did.

 

[junior40er]

and it has a obvious color. You might not want to do this but what I have done it touch it with my tip of the tongue and taste it. If its sweet then its coolant. It also has an obvious color. Glad it was just normal condensation. I was wondering same thing on my MR2 when I pulled out there was a big puddle and it was from condensation for couple hours ago when I had AC full blast.

 

[scorp965]

I'm glad I was wrong. It sure smelled like antifreeze. Ramon and Johnny(?) both told me that if it's coolant it won't evaporate fast like it did.

Perhaps the condensation re-wetted some previous residue from the parking spot; in any case, better safe than sorry when it comes to the cooling system, now you can get back to driving it worry-free.

 

[Kyras]

Perhaps the condensation re-wetted some previous residue from the parking spot; in any case, better safe than sorry when it comes to the cooling system, now you can get back to driving it worry-free.

Yep, happy driving. Also, while I was there, Ramon tightened the Valentine1 mount he hooked up for me a couple months ago. Thank you for that invention, scorp! Sure beats having the Valentine1 slide all over the dash every time the suction cups stop sucking.