Hmm.
My Sentra has lost a little coolant on a regular basis, I believe through a pinhole in the heater core. However, the last time I checked the coolant, it was down quite a bit (where the reservoir was empty).
I am also seeing a wet spot under the car near the front passenger side tire.
I topped off the coolant about two weeks ago, and have only driven
20-40 miles since then, and it's down about two inches in the reservoir again. I can smell coolant when I open the hood.It's not quite into "crawl under the car" weather here in Upstate NY, so I haven't done an exhaustive search for the leak. Still, even though the hoses are old (factory), I'm guessing it's the water pump.
I have not had good luck changing things on the engine on this car. The bolts seem to break (yes, I am careful and used to working on older engines) and I don't fancy changing the water pump. The car is rusted out, has 179K on it, and I have another car anyhow. I'm just getting the "free" miles out of this car as a beater.
Question:
- Any obvious other causes for the coolant leak?
- How hard is it to change the pump (looks like a pain from the manual, made worse by the age of the car)?
- What is the prognosis if the pump is leaking? Will it just leak for the next 10K mi? or will it get worse rapidly? I have AAA, I have another car I can use for any long trips, can I just live with the leak until the registration runs out in Sept when I plan on ending my relationship with this car. I drive....about 20 miles a week.....maybe.
Thanks for any advice.
PB