Friends,
I have a 1996 Ram 4X4 1500 PU, SLT, 5.9L, 75K. I have had a small antifreeze leak for quite a while. It was never enough to leave a spot on the ground but I would occasionally get a whiff when I got out of the truck and would have to top off the reservoir every once and a while. Yesterday there was a small pool on the ground and it used a third of the reservoir in a day. Please forgive the terms I am going to use below as I really don't know what I'm talking about, as usual.
I'm having trouble finding the exact location of the leak. It does not appear to be any hoses. The best I can trace the leak is that it is wet on a seam about three inches BEHIND the seam that the water pump is mated to (with those six or seven bolts), on the passenger side. In other words there is the mating surfaces to which the water pump is bolted (passenger side); then a few inches behind this is a seam. It appears that the coolant is coming out of this seam; leaking onto the oil pan seam; running back a couple of inches; dripping onto an engine mount; then onto the axle; then to the ground.
Is it possible this leak is actually from the water pump? I don't know if a pressure test would help me as I was watching it drip but could not trace it any further up than I so eloquently stated above.
Steve