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2000 Ford Ranger 4x4 3.0l Antifreeze leak
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stantonm71
New User
Oct 16, 2007, 10:40 AM
Post #1 of 2
(3567 views)
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2000 Ford Ranger 4x4 3.0l Antifreeze leak
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About a month ago my 2000 ford ranger started intermittently leaking coolant from the radiator cap. I recently noticed that it only seemed to happen when the AC was turned on. As a temporary fix I stopped using the AC. Today however, my windows fogged up and I have collant dripping from under the dash on the passenger side. I guess it is safe to assume it is my heater core? The odd thing here is it also appears to be leaking from within the engine compartment toward the fire wall.
I have a couple questions.
1. Could the heater core issue cause coolant to leak from the radiator cap when the AC is on?
2. Could the leak in the engine compartment actually be coming from the heater core somehow?
3. Has anyone ever changed one? If so could you give me an idea on the difficulty?
Any information or ideas would be greatly appreciated
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Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
Oct 16, 2007, 3:31 PM
Post #2 of 2
(3562 views)
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Re: 2000 Ford Ranger 4x4 3.0l Antifreeze leak
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Ok gentlemen - start your engines and let the guessing begin! That's a little different for a sequence of events with a coolant leak??
I'm trying to think of how this could happen and what comes to mind is that the leak at or the actual heater core lost coolant that somehow didn't show up and was inside the heater box at the bottom somehow and the engine did overheat with the extra load from the A/C and showed up at a faulty radiator cap. Then the extra heat allowed coolant to get on the core itself and fog your windows --- how's that sound?
One would about always blame the heater core itself with this but I'm not so sure. This would be a first but it may be possible for the hose connection or neck of the heater core could leak without making the usual fog by just sneaking down one of the tanks or something like that and a hose or core neck is really at fault.
It's a fair amount of work to do a heater core and who would want to guess wrong on that one? I think I would by-pass the core with the hoses put in a loop and pressure test the rest of the system. Then I'd have to create something to pressure test just the core. Or perhaps just put some new hose on the very ends of the core and soap it up and get some pressure on it and see if there's a split or hair line crack at the inlet or outlet.
You are there and I am here (duh) so see what you can do to verify this. Sometimes you can get a look thru the blower motor but I think you'll just see the A/C evaporator.
The radiator cap should have let the pressure go on to the recovery tank and leak over there not at the cap. A bad cap could do that however.
Lot of ifffs and maybeees with this one,
T
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