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Coolant leak in weird spot? Left rear tire area?

4K views 33 replies 10 participants last post by  MtnMan 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi guys,

2013 Focus ST3 175,000kms oil changed every 7000kms with syn and Motorcraft filter, Coolant and brake fluid just flushed at 170,000km with Ford fluids, bone stock.

It's currently -15c so the snow hasn't melted from the driveway, today I noticed a yellow slushy spot in the snow with a few small drips in line where I backed the car up. I lined it up with the rear tire mark in the snow and oddly it looks like it's dripping from the bend in the exhaust where it turns up to go into the muffler. This seems like a logical place for it to collect and drip. I confirmed by getting under the car to see the droplets. There were no other spots near the front of the car. Coolant tank has coolant but it's below the minimum, which it was when I picked it up from the flush (been meaning to top it up, but there is absolutely coolant in there.

So, where does this leave me? I suspect from the panicked searching I've done it's time for a new turbo as the seal is gone? The car runs normally, makes all the boost, fuel mileage and misfires are all within the normal range. Oil is clean and so is coolant, no blow by and no bubbles in the degas bottle. Hard to tell with our low temps if it's blowing white smoke as everyone car right now looks like it has a coolant leak haha

Am I ok to drive the car, keeping an eye on the coolant level or am I at risk of hydro locking or damaging the catalyst? I really don't want to wrench on this thing in -15c temps.

Thanks for any insight and sorry for the block of text.
 
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#2 ·
If, it is the turbo seal, there is a possibility that you will be mixing coolant with oil. Check the dipstick for coolant/oil mixture. If, it is a cracked head leak you may not have the milk chocolate mixture, depending where the crack is located. But, it can grow and start leaking coolant inside the engine. Either way, not a good proposition. Needs a pressure test to find out the leak. Do not drive the vehicle if oil/coolant mixture is present. Coolant is not a good engine lubricant.
 
#11 ·
Well, not that I've noticed. I remember I added a bit when I first bought the car over three years ago when it was at minimum thinking it was low, but I've never had to add any since. Then I had a coolant flush done about a month ago, I got it back and it was at minimum and have been meaning to add some but it doesn't look like it's gone down much since the coolant flush but I think it has gone down. I can confirm I can still see coolant in the tank though.
 
#12 ·
I would wait it out a couple days and keep an eye on the coolant level. All we know is something yellow landed under your car in an odd spot. For all we know a coyote relieved himself there one night.

Is your coolant or age or yellow?
haha I like your optimism! Unfortunately I did catch it dropping from the exhaust. The new coolant is the Ford Yellow.
 
#13 ·
draw a line on the tank, compare with the engine at the same temp over a few days.

If you're seeing it out of the exhaust its either the turbo or the head, but you need to run a coolant system pressure test. If the system doesn't hold pressure something is leaking, then you need to somehow narrow it down to the turbo or the motor.

you have a lot of kms on the car, but not really all that many to be honest. Hard to say, you'd have to start ripping stuff apart to really know.
 
#14 ·
just an update, had a drain pan under the car all night in the spot it was coming from before, was bone dry, no other fluid in the driveway, coolant level still seems the same. Could it have been just a fluke that it got so cold so quick and a seal somewhere expanded letting coolant by?
 
#15 ·
So you need to top off the coolant NOW. Our systems only hold 5 liters, so we need all the thermal absorbtion we can get.

Also, something really strange i noticed a couple years back is when 409 exhaust pipe with a layer of rust on it gets wet, it forms a yellow drip.

Once you top coolant off and mark the resevoir as others have suggested, and drive a few days to determine if the level is dropping or not, I'd seriously consider the possibility that its just the weird yellow water dripping off the pipe.
 
#16 ·
Ok so I completed a compression test, it went very well. See pics below:
#1

#2

#3

#4


These are my plugs, 4,3,2,1 gapped to .30

https://i.imgur.com/bZG68Es.jpg

The coolant was a hair below the minimum line, which I'm really not sure it was much higher when I picked it up from the shop. I topped it up anyway and marked it. I'll report back in a few days.
https://i.imgur.com/j1eJTIu.jpg

Thanks for the help everyone up to this point!
 
#18 ·
Its hard to say, that does look excessive even for that cold temperature. Though it seems to even out as it warms up.

next move would be coolant system pressure test, see if the system hold pressure. Are there bubbles coming up from the coolant reservoir with the cap off and the motor running?
 
#20 ·
A video! And you say you're bad with computers!

This is normal. So, notice there is no steam when you initially start and exit the car. At this time the car is in catalyst warmup portion of the fuel strategy. Its running rich. There is no steam, only a very light haze of black smoke that you can see in person. When it transitions over to normal fueling strategy is when AFR goes Stoichiometric and the steam happens.

If you had leftover coolant collecting and burning off, it would begin immediately.
 
#25 ·
Ok so after a few days everything is looking a-ok. A few things to note, I did some research into the yellow snow under the car during winter and there is science that supports it. Link here: https://www theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/culture/commuting/an-explanation-for-the-yellow-snow-under-your-car/article621975/ (remove the space between the www and the link) Interestingly, this is the first year I've had a paved driveway and used salt on it. Apparently when Salt, Water and Zinc meet it makes yellow droplets as a couple of the other posters have mentioned.. To add to that, even though the Ford coolant bottle says "Yellow" after dipping a white paper towel in the tank and verifying online that it's actually green... The spot in my driveway wasn't green.. lol In this case I think what threw me off was the coolant looks brownish yellow when looking into the coolant tank due to the staining from the old Orange coolant and the fact that the bottle says Yellow right on it.

I'm cautiously optimistic that I panicked a bit, although it does still seem like an excessive amount of smoke in the morning. Last night I started it up and pulled the cap off the coolant bottle to check for bubbles, came back negative there as well. I'll continue driving for the rest of the week and check the level again. I'll keep you all posted.

As a side note, I had a similar tail pipe smoke problem with my wife's 2.0 Jetta that was GDI. The intake valves were very carboned up causing a lot of white'ish brown smoke at start up which cleared up after about a minute. My intake valves have never been cleaned.. I'm wondering if there's a connection there.. As mentioned I'll get to the bottom of it via process of elimination.
 
#28 ·
2013 Focus ST3 175,000kms oil changed every 7000kms with syn and Motorcraft filter, Coolant and brake fluid just flushed at 170,000km with Ford fluids, bone stock.
Reminds me of when I coolant flushed my turbo truck and developed a coolant puddle under the bed. The coolant was dripping from my exhaust pipe. Only thing I can figure out is the original owner most of used a coolant sealer, and I washed it out!?
 
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