Coolant Leak Location - Degas?

[galvorn]

Getting a sporadic coolant leak on my 06 LS (~82K mi). It got a little below the "Low" marker at one point, filled it up to Max Cold Fill, but it has been stubbornly staying about in the middle of the cold fill range.

Every now and then there will be coolant to the right of the driver front tire (but not behind as all the threads here are saying).

Plenty of heat at idle, technically never overheated (according to the gauge), but cooling fan has been kicking on at max a lot more than usual and the coolant temp has spiked as high as 217F at traffic stops. However, these have gone away when the coolant was topped off.

Figure a good place to start would be to replace the degas + cap (still original) with OEM Motorcraft parts (~$185 shipped from Tasca), but does the location of the leak scream "DEGAS!!!" to you?

Also, already have had the thermostat housing and a few associated plastic pieces replaced last summer.

Thanks!

 

[LS4me]

Getting a sporadic coolant leak on my 06 LS (~82K mi). It got a little below the "Low" marker at one point, filled it up to Max Cold Fill, but it has been stubbornly staying about in the middle of the cold fill range.

Every now and then there will be coolant to the right of the driver front tire (but not behind as all the threads here are saying).

Plenty of heat at idle, technically never overheated (according to the gauge), but cooling fan has been kicking on at max a lot more than usual and the coolant temp has spiked as high as 217F at traffic stops. However, these have gone away when the coolant was topped off.

Figure a good place to start would be to replace the degas + cap (still original) with OEM Motorcraft parts (~$185 shipped from Tasca), but does the location of the leak scream "DEGAS!!!" to you?

Also, already have had the thermostat housing and a few associated plastic pieces replaced last summer.

Thanks!

I would suspect the degas tank... In any case, that plastic part is almost 10 years old.

 

[galvorn]

Yeah, I figured it wouldn't hurt anything to replace the degas at this point in the car's life. It has given me 10+ years of trouble-free service.
Just wanted to know if the location of the leak pointed to the degas being the culprit, since it is kind of to the right of the driver front tire, and not "behind" as most people here mentioned (which I take to mean literally directly behind the tire).

 

[LS4me]

Yeah, I figured it wouldn't hurt anything to replace the degas at this point in the car's life. It has given me 10+ years of trouble-free service.
Just wanted to know if the location of the leak pointed to the degas being the culprit, since it is kind of to the right of the driver front tire, and not "behind" as most people here mentioned (which I take to mean literally directly behind the tire).

Yes.... The location is classic degas tank.

 

[cammerfe]

Where are you standing when you observe the leak 'to the right' of the wheel? The degas bottle is mounted to the firewall (which is further back toward the driver than you might expect from a cursory examination).

I think you'll find that 'behind' means further toward the back of the car and not 'toward the engine'. There are hoses that run from the 'front of the engine' back to the degas bottle but the most likely problem is the bottle itself.

KS

 

[LS4me]

Where are you standing when you observe the leak 'to the right' of the wheel? The degas bottle is mounted to the firewall (which is further back toward the driver than you might expect from a cursory examination).

I think you'll find that 'behind' means further toward the back of the car and not 'toward the engine'. There are hoses that run from the 'front of the engine' back to the degas bottle but the most likely problem is the bottle itself.

KS

The puddle should show up right behind the front wheel, slightly towards the middle of the car; about 4 o'clock on the wheel.

 

[Telco]

You may also have a broken thermostat housing. They are plastic inside and out, have no metal reinforcement, and the spring puts VERY heavy stress on little plastic wings. In my opinion they should have used a self contained 10 dollar thermostat instead of the thing they selected, because it wouldn't have put us in a situation where a heavy spring is putting constant pressure on weak plastic.

What they used, which would have been fine with a metal housing:

What they should have used, with a plastic housing:

And before anyone says anything about they HAD to use this part because of the engineering, even a mediocre engineer could have designed either a metal housing for the thermostat they used or a plastic housing that could use a self-contained thermostat (no spring pressure on the housing).

 

[1LoudLS]

In my opinion they should have used a self contained 10 dollar thermostat instead of the thing they selected

couldn't agree with you more...

 

[galvorn]

The puddle should show up right behind the front wheel, slightly towards the middle of the car; about 4 o'clock on the wheel.

Almost describes mine, except mine is a couple of inches away from the driver front wheel (towards the middle of the car).