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Puzzeled about drip, 99 Taurus.

I recently flushed and refilled my cooling system, having been surprised by overheating. I inspected the system for leaks and didn't find any. Last night, when weather was cool by the lake, I put the heater on. A little while later I noticed dripping under the car. It seemed to come down from behind the engine, in the middle and near the cat converter.

This morning I wanted to trace the leak. I put the heater on, ran the engine to normal temperature and heated up the inside. In spite of this testing, I do not see any dripping now. Is there a wise man out there for me? The coolant has been in the normal range.

Reply to
Moses
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Air cond. condenser out flow

Reply to
Bernard Ruland

If the drip was clear water, it might have been that your air conditioning circuit was turned on to dry the air, so that your windshield would not fog up. This happens when you put the heat on defog and defog/floor in my Contour. I think the Taurus is similar.

The air conditioner dries the air. When it does this, the water drains out through a hole to the ground.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

If your overheating problem returns, you should be aware that some Taurus/Sable of that vintage had a problem with the water pump impellar corroding and disappearing. There is a TSB out on the problem but, the cure is basically an updated water pump. You should chack on the TSB for complete info. Sorry I do not have it any longer.

Lugnut

Reply to
lugnut

Thanks, and thanks to all who responded. As far as I can tell, there hasn't been dripping the last couple days. Might it be that it's less humid? Might the dripping have come from an overflow tube from the coolant? It appears to me that the coolant might have come down slightly but it's still in the normal range. I don't know where I'd get that TSB. The engine has not overheated since. Because the heater seems to work well and the radiator hose gets hot I figure the water pump must still be working.

lugnut wrote:

Reply to
Moses

Lower humidity may be the answer but, your coolant reservoir level should stabilize after 3-5 hot run cycles. Do your check either completely warm or dead cold. You should see almost exactly the same level you look at it under similar temp conditions. A system with no leakage will have almost no drop in level over many months of operation.

Lugnut

Reply to
lugnut

The overflow tube is usually further forward than you describe, maybe 12 inches behind the radiator.

I think you figure wrong. It's not like a catastrophic failure with the water pump, but rather, the water pump pumps much less coolant than desired. So it seems to work well in the cooler weather, but in reality, it isn't. Some parts of the engine might not be getting enough coolant flow, too.

You should be able to go into your dealer to get the TSB. You can also do a search of the web for tsb taurus water pump. I bet you can find it.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

"There was a recall on this car for problems with the cooling system, so the first thing to do is check to see if the recall was performed.

Also, there was a TSB, number 01-11-6 dated 06/11/01 addressing this problem. It involved, among a number of other things, replacing the water pump with a modified water pump. The new water pump is part number

1F1Z-8501-AA.

In addition, I would replace the serpentine belt with Ford part number F7PZ-8620-AB since there was a problem with the serpentine belt slipping.

If, after all this is done and it still overheats, the freeze plugs may have to come out to inspect the block water passages for obstructions."

This was listed for the '96. Might apply to yours, also.

SC Tom

Reply to
SC Tom

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