vaultdweller_95

Hello everyone.

New to this forum. Proud owner of a 2006 V6 Stang. I'll start off by letting you guys know I'm not very tech savvy nor handy when it comes to cars. I'm having some issues and I have no idea what's wrong.

Issue #1: My car has been leaking coolant from time to time. As far as I know, it only leaks when I turn the car off. I haven't checked if it leaks when the car is running. It's not much of a regular thing but it's leaked twice in the past week or so. Before this week it leaked about a month ago. Mechanic told me to change the reservoir cap and see if it works. I changed the cap and I thought it worked up until this week. The first time this week it nearly drained the coolant tank whereas the second time, the coolant tank was pretty much full. There is no sign of overheating as the needle is nowhere near H. I also noticed that there is coolant on some parts of the engine -- almost as if it sprayed some all over the place. Oh and just in case this is needed, I use 50/50 Prestone.

Basically, my AC turns on whenever it wants to. Most of the time, it doesn't turn on when the car turns on. Other times, I'll be driving and then it turns on. Other times, I'll be driving and it turns on but turns off right away.

Not sure if the AC and coolant leaking are connected but I thought I'd include what's going on just in case. The weirdest thing to me is that there's no overheat before I notice the leak so I really don't know what's going on

I'm super lost and any help will be appreciated. Thanks so much!

vaultdweller_95

Forgot to add "Issue #2" for the AC part

08'MustangDude

Leaks when the car is off?

Then, when you park, idle the car, pop the hood. Shut the car off, then
hurry up and get outside, prop the hood up and wait to see if any leaks
spring up.

The cap will not cause a leak unless the coolant level gets too high in the
reservoir bottle. Then, it goes out the over-flow hose at the corner,
and not out the cap, unless it's high enough in the bottle to be pressure
forced out of both. The cap is there to hold pressure, because water
boils at a higher temperature under pressure. You can run without a
cap, but you may over-heat because the coolant can boil off with no
pressure in the system.

Racing the motor can also cause it to over-flow, like running at 5000+ RPMs
for extended times, or drag racing it, and shifting at 6000 RPM through each
gear. It happens, coolant will blow out the reservoir over-flow.

JimC

On the 4.0 the thermostat housing frequently fails; 99% of the time that is the source of the coolant leak. Look on the back side of the housing for a split and coolant spraying under your intake manifold since that is the most common. It is a very easy fix, takes about a half hour to swap to a new housing. Best is to get the aluminum housing (check on Amazon).

Check the S197 section for the 2005-10 V6 and you will find threads on it. There may be a sticky at the top of the section on how to repair it.

08'MustangDude

They're made of plastic, the continual hot and cool eventually cracks them.
Yeah, there is am aluminum replacement for them too. I plan to do mine
thus summer, needing it or not.

vaultdweller_95

So I hit a good 5500 RPMs today on the way to work (which is a good 15 mile drive). I idled the car, popped the hood, checked for a leak but there was no leak this time around. No sign of overheat. I turned the car off and still no leak. It's as though it's just leaking on its own schedule and it's pretty annoying. I attached a photo to visually describe what my issue has been.

A. Coolant reservoir
B. Hose that comes from reservoir (I noticed a stream of coolant dripping from around where letter B is at)
C. A part of the suspension (I think) where the coolant leaks onto (notice some parts are darker than others)


So it's as follows:

A. Coolant tank
B. Hose that comes from coolant tank (when it leaks, I notice a stream of coolant dripping from there)
C. A part of the suspension where the coolant leaks onto. (Notice some parts are darker)

Another question is if the hose is faulty, wouldn't it be leaking every time the car is on or every time I drive or turn it off? Just wondering.

PS: I know it's pretty dirty, havent got around to cleaning it this time around so please don't hate on me for this lol.

08'MustangDude

It could be the clamp is failing, it happens. Take the clamp off and replace
it with a band clamp, and tighten it up. There could be a hole under the
clamp...