Missing Coolant (w/link to pics)
From : eggraid
Q: this is a multi-part message in mime format. ------=nextpart000000c01c4d24c.6ed9c710 content-type text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 content-transfer-encoding quoted-printable =20 hey gang you may recall my post from a few weeks ago regarding the mysterious = missing coolant. i reported that i could smell the sweet scent after = parking. well i am off this week and made it a point to try and figure this = out. i havent figured it out but maybe you can help. the coolant leaks very slowly. i filled the radiator and the = overflow container up to five dots on the dipstick about 2 weeks ago and it = is=20 only at the second dot on the dipstick and the radiator is still full. here is where it isnt leaking no leaks from the radiator itself no leaks from the upper hose no leaks from the lower hose no leaks from the secondary overfill tank no leaks from the water pump no leaks from or around the thermostat housing here is what i found i crawled underneath and found a little anti-freeze pooling up on a = frame support around the oil filter. further examination showed some concentration of anti-freeze along the lip where the oil pan bolts = to the engine. i realized i had to figure where it was coming from and there is = nothing i could see that indicated any thing dripping from above to that = location.=20 no trail no evidence at all. the truck runs like new and idles great too. here are the pics of where i see the anti-freeze hanging out http//jonesmendler.com/fmendler/coolantleak1 --this is from under the car http//jonesmendler.com/fmendler/coolantleak2 -- this is from the wheel well with the tire removed. thanks er freeze plug =20 roy=20 definition an expansion plug located in the side of an engine block = that is supposed to protect the block against freeze damage. water = expands when it turns to ice and if the coolant doesnt have enough = antifreeze protection it can freeze and crack the engine block. the = freeze plugs there are several are supposed to pop out under such = conditions to relieve the pressure on the block. freeze plugs can often = be a source of troublesome leaks as a result of internal cooling system = corrosion. ease of replacement depends on accessibility.=20 ------=nextpart000000c01c4d24c.6ed9c710 content-type text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 content-transfer-encoding quoted-printable !doctype html public -//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en htmlhead meta http-equiv=3dcontent-type content=3dtext/html; = charset=3diso-8859-1 meta content=3dmshtml 6.00.2800.1476 name=3dgenerator style/style /head body divfont face=3darial size=3d2/font /div divfont face=3darial size=3d2roy </fonta=20 href=3dmailtoroy@home.netfont face=3darial = size=3d2roy@home.net/font/afont=20 face=3darial=20 size=3d2.../font/divfont face=3darial size=3d2> br> = eggraid=20 </fonta href=3dmailtoshaderushmore@yahoo.comfont face=3darial = size=3d2shaderushmore@yahoo.com/font/afont face=3darial = size=3d2> wrote in=20 message br> /fonta=20 face=3darial=20 size=3d2...br> > hey gangbr> >br> > you may = recall my=20 post from a few weeks ago regarding the mysterious br> > = missingbr>=20 > coolant. i reported that i could smell the sweet scent after=20 parking.br> > well i am off this week and made it a point to = try and=20 figure this out. ibr> > havent figured it out but maybe you = can=20 help.br> >br> > the coolant leaks very slowly. i = filled=20 the radiator and the overflowbr> > container up to five dots on = the=20 dipstick about 2 weeks ago and it is br> > onlybr> > at = the=20 second dot on the dipstick and the radiator is still full.br> = >br>=20 > here is where it isnt leakingbr> >br> > no leaks = from the=20 radiator itselfbr> > no leaks from the upper hosebr> > = no leaks=20 from the lower hosebr> > no leaks from the secondary overfill=20 tankbr> > no leaks from the water pumpbr> > no leaks = from or=20 around the thermostat housingbr> >br> > here is what i=20 foundbr> > i crawled underneath and found a little anti-freeze = pooling=20 up on a framebr> > support around the oil filter. further=20 examination showed somebr> > concentration of anti-freeze along = the lip=20 where the oil pan bolts to thebr> > engine.br> >br> = > i=20 realized i had to figure where it was coming from and there is nothing = ibr>=20 > could see that indicated any thing dripping from above to that = location.=20 br> > nobr> > trail no evidence at all.br> = >br>=20 > the truck runs like new and idles great too.br> >br> = > here=20 are the pics of where i see the anti-freeze hanging outbr> = >br>=20 > /fonta = href
Replies:
From : mike
by the way if i unlock the hubs it will not disengage in the dash. youre going to have to try explaining that one again - that made no sense to me... and it would help to know the year of your truck. my first guess the above confusion aside is that you do indeed have a vacuum leak somewhere exacerbated enough by the cold weather to where it creates this problem. does your heat if set to blow out the dash vents switch to the defrost vents under hard acceleration if so thats a sure sign of a more centralized vacuum leak ie. upstream from the check valve if present on the line going to the transfer case. if its important to have a reliable 4wd operation and most of the time it is id replace the vacuum system in favor of a mechanical control like the 4x4 posi-lok system. its easy to install and works well. you can find it at various places on-line or at jc whitney. .
From : james1549
ive had no difficulties removing a stripped stud on the rear wheel of a 94 dakota. i hammered out the old one inserted the new stud and used some oversized nuts as spacers so i could fully draw it in before remounting the wheel. bruce .
From : maxpower
only when the ears wont lay down. budd roy wrote bingo!!! we have a winner!!! vbg if the trailer is really tall you might consider making a v shaped false front on it to reduce the drag or if needed you can add some storage in the fairing. it wont give you the same mileage as not towing but it can significantly help. denny has one of those only it is more of a u shape. it is his stomach. bfg doesnt that kind of shape increase drag ..... jerry .
From : hodad
http//www.rustrepair.com/app2/onlinecat.htmr=ru&p=sm-dodge.pickup should be almost the exact body panels as the ramcharger. -- steve williams it sounds like you are talking about the rocker panels and i am unaware of any place that makes them for that year trailduster but that doesnt mean that they dont exist. -- if at first you dont succeed youre not cut out for skydiving hello all i purchased a 79 trailduster recently. overall the condition of the body is good except for some rust underneath. the rusted panels are under the driver and passenger side floor where the bottom of the truck meets the side. they are the length of the door and about 8 inches in width. i initially thought that they are part of the floorpan but i am able to see through these panels rust holes. the floorboard appears to be directly above the rusted out part. does anyone know the name of the panels that im referring to if so where might i find replacement panels thanks in advance guy arent the rocker panels vertical pieces directly under the door these are horizontal pieces under the truck. i guess i might just need to go to a junkyard and hope they have non-rusted ones. thanks guy ----== posted via feeds.com - unlimited-uncensored-secure usenet ==---- http//www.feeds.com the #1 group service in the world! 100000 groups ---= east/west-coast server farms - total privacy via encryption =--- .
From : eggraid
subject re 1997 dodge caravan gauge cluster problem fixed from mirse@aol.com mirse date 10/27/2004 637 pm eastern standard time message-id 20041027193711.17863.00001391@mb-m01.aol.com subject re 1997 dodge caravan gauge cluster problem fixed from mirse@aol.com mirse date 10/22/2004 615 pm eastern daylight time message-id 20041022181506.18151.00005086@mb-m03.aol.com subject re 1997 dodge caravan gauge cluster problem fixed from nitpik bubba@mindspring.com date 10/20/2004 911 am eastern daylight time message-id xstdd.1$kh2.1233@.uswest.net loose wiring harness connection or broken wire. when the cluster quits working does it go dark or does everything just indicate minimums or maximums what exactly in the cluster indicates correctly or not ***** in an earlier message i said that when the gauge cluster stopped working again i would report back to you as to what happened. the cluster is still working. in the meantime i tried to recall what happened when the gauge cluster stopped working the last time. this is what i remember 1. the abs brake light came on and stayed on. 2. the service engine light came on and stayed on. 3. the p-r-d-3-l light went out and stayed out that is when we drove the car at night we could not see the prd3l. 4. the electronic trip odometer went out and stayed out. 5. all the gauges were pegged at zero. 6. that is all i remember for now. 7. wish us luck. it has now been about 12 days since the gauge cluster stopped working. they are still working. ****** update. oct. 2704. gauges stopped working but came back on while we were driving on a main street today. the service engine came on and stayed on even when the gauges started working again. this is what happened we were driving on a main road when the gauges suddenly stopped working and the service engine light came on. we then tapped the top of the clusters slightly and the lights came back on but the service light stayed on. we stopped for a while and went into a store. when we came out and started the car the service light did not stay on. it has been 17 days since the gauges last stopped working. ill let you know when the gauges stop working again. ****** update nov. 25 2004. 1. the gauges suddenly stopped working a couple of days ago as we were driving to a nearby store. 2. we softly hit the top of the cluster with our open hand while we were driving and the gauges came back on. 3. the service light stayed on even though the gauges were now working. 4. we checked the code it was 66. 5. we disconnected the battery for about 5 minutes when we got home. 6. the check engine light went off when we re-connected the battery and it has stayed off. 7. i will let you know if we have trouble with the gauges again. mirse@aol.com one recent sunday i was working on our 1997 dodge caravan se that was bought new. the gauges had suddenly stopped working off and on for the past few months and now they had stopped working again. the service engine came on. we checked the code and we would always get code 66. it had something to do with either the body control module and the transmission control module not giving out a signal according to our haynes book. what seems to have worked for us we ran through the automatic gears while the car was running in the driveway and then we lightly hit the top of the cluster a few times. the gauge cluster started working. it has been a little over a week and the clusters are still working. we took a 6 hour trip in the caravan this past weekend and the clusters are still working for your information before we decided to run through all the automatic gears we tried steps that had workded for us in the past when the gauges stopped working but these steps did not seem to work for us this time 1. we disconnected the battery for about 15 minutes. 2. we took out that little red fuse in the fuse box under the hood for a .
From : mac davis
on thu 25 nov 2004 022132 gmt roy roy@home.net wrote hope you and yours have a good one today. remember for those who bow their heads before the meal give a thought to our guys and girls that are in harms way. roy have a great thanksgiving turkey.. never was good at punk-u-ation .
From : eggraid
thanks to all it turned out to be the case of improper installation. it is all good now. i .
From : buster
his stomach or the steering wheel budd bingo!!! we have a winner!!! vbg if the trailer is really tall you might consider making a v shaped false front on it to reduce the drag or if needed you can add some storage in the fairing. it wont give you the same mileage as not towing but it can significantly help. budd denny has one of those only it is more of a u shape. it is his stomach. bfg roy yah... odds are its the trailer.... i took the truck on a 60 mile drive and it got around 15 mpg.... i was doing speed limit + 5 so 70 to 75 mph the whole time. i think thats pretty good. carl i think you just found your answer... a tall and/or wide trailer will always cause a bigger drop in mileage than a compact trailer. another factor speed . . the faster you try to drag it along the more drag it going to have. keep your speed reasonable say 55-60 and while it may take you a little longer you can save in fuel costs. budd our trailer is only around 2500 lbs fully loaded but it is pretty tall. i think the height is making the trailer cause more drag than it should especially when i have nothing in the bed of the truck. im going to take the truck for a 60 mile ride this weekend and ill see what the gas mileage is on it... tia. on thu 18 nov 2004 135230 -0600 carl chipman cchipman@nomadics.com wrote hey guys used to hang out on this forum right when i bought my truck five years or so ago but have dropped off till recently...however my 1999 dodge ram qc long bed is getting old and has 135000 miles on it in ive got the 5.9l v8 and gas mileage is pretty bad in the 12-13 on the highway and 10-12 around town... if im pulling something its falling down to 9 mpg. in short it sucks... does anyone have any advice.. ive just recently replaced the distributor cap well actually my mechanic did and weve run fuel injector cleaner...spark plugs and wires are only 20k miles old...air filter was replaced recently. im lost... what can i do to get the mileage and power back up also its got other small problems... in the top console one of the push button lights has gone out and i cant figure how to get the console off to replace the bulb... the electronic door lock on the passenger side door is also no longer working and when you attempt to lock it it makes a whirring noise and tries to lock but usually doesnt. finally the seal on the back window is leaking and i cant figure out how to just order a new seal. the dodge dealership says i have to order a whole new back window assembly for around $400... yikes!! help! does anyone have a good book to recommend tia carl chipman we have the same truck in a short bed... 360/auto/2wd/355 when we tow the trailer about 5500 - 6000# we average 8mpg... a tuneup and going to synthetic in everything possible got us about 1/2 mpg better so i guess thats as good as it gets.. 15 mpg on trips if were constant... 65 and 80 seem to be about the same on a trip but bouncing around between speeds drops it a lot.. in town were lucky to get 10 or 11 mpg...its a lot of truck to get moving in stop & go traffic.. .
From : hodad
i just got my craftsman club flyer yesterday and thereare a couple an air compressors there that look quite portable. looks like sears part number #15239. says it does 150 psi with pressure regulator on a 1.5 gallon tank. the sale price is $89.99 another one there is 120v and weighs 11 lbs no info on pressure or volume but is $79.99. part number #15236. theres my 2 cents worth. if sears have them then others should. i am very tired of the cheapo tire inflators that are extremely slow and built like toys and need 12v or even worse are rechargeable. what i would like to buy is a -- 110v inflator -- it should not weigh more than 20 lbs -- it should have a shutoff that stops it when it reaches settable pressure it may be that i need something like a tankless air compressor but i want one with an automatic shutoff feature for tire inflation. i could spend up to $100 for it. any suggestions -- running log http//igor.chudov.com/weightloss/exercise.txt .
From : eggraid
gang just yesterday my truck started making a loud clank when i took turns. sounds to be from the back end...and no i dont have anything loose in the bed of my pickup. 99 dakota sport 96k or so i thought a shock might be loose but i grabbed them and they are there good. i remember when i replaced them one came loose after a few days and was making a racket. same type of clanking though...that is for sure. thoughts er i get a clunk when starting out that sounds like something loose in the back seat quad even checked the tire jack have not found the source yet- ron .
From : eggraid
on wed 24 nov 2004 163319 -0500 maxpower gjbeasley@comcast.net wrote acually they believe it to be cheaper by not putting the harness there tehy are not prewired. the cost of the motors regulators wires. and even the door panels wouldnt be worth it unless you were to find a wrecked dakota with these parts in good shape. glenn beasley chrysler tech thanks for the info. damn them! john .
From : eggraid
this is a multi-part message in mime format. ------=nextpart000003a01c4d24e.ef6cbf20 content-type text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 content-transfer-encoding quoted-printable found more info...there is a passenger side freeze plug near the motor = mount. google told me that some others have had slow leaks here too. = any comments ------=nextpart000003a01c4d24e.ef6cbf20 content-type text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 content-transfer-encoding quoted-printable !doctype html public -//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en htmlhead meta http-equiv=3dcontent-type content=3dtext/html; = charset=3diso-8859-1 meta content=3dmshtml 6.00.2800.1476 name=3dgenerator style/style /head body bgcolor=3d#ebebeb divfont face=3darial size=3d2found more info...there is a passenger = side freeze=20 plug near the motor mount. google told me that some others have = had slow=20 leaks here too. any comments/font/div divfont face=3darial size=3d2/font /div div /div/body/html ------=nextpart000003a01c4d24e.ef6cbf20-- .
From : tom lawrence
sounds like freeze plug. i worked with a lady that had a 01 durango 318 with about 50000 miles on it. freeze plug rusted through on back side of engine. transmission had to be dropped to get to it. i think it cost her around $500.00 to have it done. bk on wed 24 nov 2004 231145 gmt roy roy@home.net wrote hey gang you may recall my post from a few weeks ago regarding the mysterious missing coolant. i reported that i could smell the sweet scent after parking. well i am off this week and made it a point to try and figure this out. i havent figured it out but maybe you can help. the coolant leaks very slowly. i filled the radiator and the overflow container up to five dots on the dipstick about 2 weeks ago and it is only at the second dot on the dipstick and the radiator is still full. here is where it isnt leaking no leaks from the radiator itself no leaks from the upper hose no leaks from the lower hose no leaks from the secondary overfill tank no leaks from the water pump no leaks from or around the thermostat housing here is what i found i crawled underneath and found a little anti-freeze pooling up on a frame support around the oil filter. further examination showed some concentration of anti-freeze along the lip where the oil pan bolts to the engine. i realized i had to figure where it was coming from and there is nothing i could see that indicated any thing dripping from above to that location. no trail no evidence at all. the truck runs like new and idles great too. here are the pics of where i see the anti-freeze hanging out http//jonesmendler.com/fmendler/coolantleak1 --this is from under the car http//jonesmendler.com/fmendler/coolantleak2 -- this is from the wheel well with the tire removed. thanks er freeze plug roy .
From : roy
this is a multi-part message in mime format. ------=nextpart000001e01c4d24d.74423fb0 content-type text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 content-transfer-encoding quoted-printable i found this http//www.dodgedakotas.com/boards/v6/5997.html because i dont see the amount of anti-freeze discussed here coming from = the area of the starter i am thinking it might be this from the link=20 1st make sure its not coming out the back of the intake assembly = plenum. the water jacket runs on the outside of the back of the plenum = and possibly blew the gasket on back. i dont know what any of this is.... ------=nextpart000001e01c4d24d.74423fb0 content-type text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 content-transfer-encoding quoted-printable !doctype html public -//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en htmlhead meta http-equiv=3dcontent-type content=3dtext/html; = charset=3diso-8859-1 meta content=3dmshtml 6.00.2800.1476 name=3dgenerator style/style /head body bgcolor=3d#ebebeb divfont face=3darial size=3d2i found this/font/div divfont face=3darial size=3d2a=20 href=3dhttp//www.dodgedakotas.com/boards/v6/5997.htmlhttp//www.dodge= dakotas.com/boards/v6/5997.html/a/font/div divfont face=3darial size=3d2/font /div divfont face=3darial size=3d2because i dont see the amount of = anti-freeze=20 discussed here coming from the area of the starter i am thinking it = might be=20 this/font/div divfont face=3darial size=3d2/font /div divfont face=3darial size=3d2from the link /font/div divfont face=3darial size=3d2/font /div divfont face=3darial size=3d2!--startfragment --font = face=3dtimes new roman=20 size=3d3 /fontfont face=3darial color=3d#000000 size=3d21st make = sure its not=20 coming out the back of the intake assembly plenum. the water jacket = runs on=20 the outside of the back of the plenum and possibly blew the gasket on = back.=20 /font/font/div divfont face=3darial size=3d2/font /div divfont face=3darial size=3d2i dont know what any of this=20 is..../font/div/body/html ------=nextpart000001e01c4d24d.74423fb0-- .