My testing harness for dashboard warnings lights, which, incidentally can be used for transportation, presented me with a coolant low light. And, in fact, the coolant was low, so the sensor was accurate. (I've always been a little frustrated when the first response to an irregular reading from a sensor is to replace the sensor itself rather than the problems being reported by the sensor.) The next question was, where was it going? A little investigation revealed it was leaking out of a pipe that ran along the bottom of the radiator, connecting the overflow tank to the radiator and pump. This was less of a mechanical problem and more of a plumbing problem.
I was disappointed in myself because I saw this dodgy pipe while fixing the water pump and thought to myself: "If it's not broke, don't fix it" and just because it looked dodgy didn't mean it actually was dodgy. I'm guessing that once the system was running at proper pressure, a weakness in the pipe developed into a leak. Mechanical systems seem to wear as an entire system, so replacing a part exacerbates the wear in others. After replacing this pipe, the next-weakest part of the pressurized cooling system are the hoses, then radiator and then the engine block itself.
Locating the part itself was a bit of a hassle. It was only available directly from Ford -- but when you order from Ford you effectively get overnight delivery to a Ford dealer and it so happens there's one just on my way to work.
To do this job, I got a new toy^Wtool. It's a tool specifically designed to open the clamps on radiator hoses. It was about $18 on Amazon and a bargain at twice the price. I figured I would need to remove and replace at least six clamps, and some were not easily reachable. Having the wired extension made removing the clamps easy in that it was able to open them enough to have the stop tab keep them open. After opening the clamps, removing the hoses was remarkably hassle free. Without this tool, it would have been much more of a struggle.
With all of the clamps opened, I removed the lower hoses, careful to catch the coolant still retained in the system. About another gallon of coolant exited from the bottom of the radiator. Even with my fancy tool, I had trouble reaching the clamp on the lower hose, so I unhooked the oxygen sensor and pulled the pipe still attached to the coolant return hose upward, looking as though I disemboweled my Freestyle. The last hose clip could now be reached with ease.
test, I would be surprised if this didn't hold the rubber to the pipe with enough pressure, resulting in yet another leak. With very little effort I was able to pull the two parts of the clamp away. The nice straight seam in the metal was a bit odd in that I didn't see anything the fitting was resting upon to cause this indentation.
The pipe's integrity was greater than anticipated, as I expected the pipe to simply collapse into pieces, or fracture where they meet the rubber hoses. Instead, I needed to scrape a little to find the problems: in two places the rust gave away to expose holes in the pipe. For comparison, I've included a side-by-side picture of the old part and its replacement.
I'm going to guess enough metal remained to hold liquid at STP but not at running conditions. With the system no longer leaking at the water pump, the system was under much more pressure than before, thus forcing the liquid out while the car was running. The leaking had also corroded one of the hose clamps, reducing it's ability to hold under pressure as well.
I got everything taken apart and the clock struck eleven bells. Being a work night, I decided to clean-up and get ready for bed. I was working in garage and it was a warm evening, so I decided to leave the door open and I pushed the bucket of coolant under the car so the cats wouldn't be tempted to imbibe and it would be out of reach of the kids (worried about them kicking it over), as coolant can be re-used.
Auto repair isn't my forte (if you've been reading the blog, that's painfully obvious) but plumbing... I've done enough plumbing to not make the obvious mistakes. The process of test fitting lets you understand how sets of fittings will work together before actually welding/sweating them into place, making it easy to fix problems. In the illustration, I've circled the two fittings I needed to turn the other direction so I could reach the bolt head to tighten them. Here's what it looked like once in the car and I realized I needed to flip things around:
The air filter housing blocked access to the hose going into the water pump, so I removed the 8mm bolt and pulled it from its rubber grommets. With that out of the way, I reattached the water pump hose, radiator hose, and return hose -- the soap making it easy to position the rubber hoses. Just like the dishwasher I installed earlier, I "test fit" all of the connections before clamping them into place. This works so much better than tightening fittings "as you go" because mistakes can be fixed easily. In my test fitting, I found that I put the bolt heads on the new clamps facing the wrong direction and I needed to twist the hose heading to the water pump about 90 degrees. Once lined-up I tightened the various clamps (using an 8mm socket) to fix the replacement part into place. The picture shows use of the hose clamp tool -- it was a real frustration and time saver.
It was now I reached for my used coolant and spied a frog, dead and floating about. I'm pretty sure my cooling system didn't contain any frogs, so this unfortunate amphibian hopped in overnight and couldn't make its way back out again. I've heard that coolant was supposed to taste good, so much there's an additive to make it less attractive tasting to kids, I wonder other animals can't taste the additive or maybe my garage attracts less fortunate frogs.
Makes you wonder about the prevalence and abundance of life -- it's simply everywhere. I wonder what bigger livestock has made its way into my garage when the door is left open? Given the sheer number of deer, raccoons, groundhogs, turkey, squirrels, mice, owls, small children, pheasant, snakes, dogs, and cats spotted in an average week wondering about the yard, I'm betting an open garage attracts more wildlife than I want to know.
I was disappointed in myself because I saw this dodgy pipe while fixing the water pump and thought to myself: "If it's not broke, don't fix it" and just because it looked dodgy didn't mean it actually was dodgy. I'm guessing that once the system was running at proper pressure, a weakness in the pipe developed into a leak. Mechanical systems seem to wear as an entire system, so replacing a part exacerbates the wear in others. After replacing this pipe, the next-weakest part of the pressurized cooling system are the hoses, then radiator and then the engine block itself.
Locating the part itself was a bit of a hassle. It was only available directly from Ford -- but when you order from Ford you effectively get overnight delivery to a Ford dealer and it so happens there's one just on my way to work.
Out with the Old
Fixing things was straight forward. I drove the car up onto ramps, no need to lift using a jack and place jack stands. Drained the radiator into a bucket from the petcock and found my second Imperial fitting on the car a 1/2inch plastic nut serving as the valve for the petcock, gave it a turn and I didn't get that much coolant. I could still feel the liquid in the other side of the tube so I'll be ready to catch the coolant when I remove the rubber hose. Curiously, I replaced my dishwasher the week before, all of the fittings, hoses, nuts, bolts were Imperial as well. Maybe the Crown has a lock on plumbing fixtures as well as socket ends?To do this job, I got a new toy^Wtool. It's a tool specifically designed to open the clamps on radiator hoses. It was about $18 on Amazon and a bargain at twice the price. I figured I would need to remove and replace at least six clamps, and some were not easily reachable. Having the wired extension made removing the clamps easy in that it was able to open them enough to have the stop tab keep them open. After opening the clamps, removing the hoses was remarkably hassle free. Without this tool, it would have been much more of a struggle.
With all of the clamps opened, I removed the lower hoses, careful to catch the coolant still retained in the system. About another gallon of coolant exited from the bottom of the radiator. Even with my fancy tool, I had trouble reaching the clamp on the lower hose, so I unhooked the oxygen sensor and pulled the pipe still attached to the coolant return hose upward, looking as though I disemboweled my Freestyle. The last hose clip could now be reached with ease.
Failed Clamp
Once out of the car, it was also clear that the section of the pipe closest to the water pump took the brunt rust damage. When tried to remove the fitting around the hose with my tool, I noticed that is was nearly rusted in half and had adhered to to the rubber. While I didn'ttest, I would be surprised if this didn't hold the rubber to the pipe with enough pressure, resulting in yet another leak. With very little effort I was able to pull the two parts of the clamp away. The nice straight seam in the metal was a bit odd in that I didn't see anything the fitting was resting upon to cause this indentation.
The pipe's integrity was greater than anticipated, as I expected the pipe to simply collapse into pieces, or fracture where they meet the rubber hoses. Instead, I needed to scrape a little to find the problems: in two places the rust gave away to expose holes in the pipe. For comparison, I've included a side-by-side picture of the old part and its replacement.
I'm going to guess enough metal remained to hold liquid at STP but not at running conditions. With the system no longer leaking at the water pump, the system was under much more pressure than before, thus forcing the liquid out while the car was running. The leaking had also corroded one of the hose clamps, reducing it's ability to hold under pressure as well.
I got everything taken apart and the clock struck eleven bells. Being a work night, I decided to clean-up and get ready for bed. I was working in garage and it was a warm evening, so I decided to leave the door open and I pushed the bucket of coolant under the car so the cats wouldn't be tempted to imbibe and it would be out of reach of the kids (worried about them kicking it over), as coolant can be re-used.
In with the New
The next day, a little bit of dish soap on the ends and I "test fit" everything back together again, putting a little soap on the ends to make adjustments easier:Auto repair isn't my forte (if you've been reading the blog, that's painfully obvious) but plumbing... I've done enough plumbing to not make the obvious mistakes. The process of test fitting lets you understand how sets of fittings will work together before actually welding/sweating them into place, making it easy to fix problems. In the illustration, I've circled the two fittings I needed to turn the other direction so I could reach the bolt head to tighten them. Here's what it looked like once in the car and I realized I needed to flip things around:
The air filter housing blocked access to the hose going into the water pump, so I removed the 8mm bolt and pulled it from its rubber grommets. With that out of the way, I reattached the water pump hose, radiator hose, and return hose -- the soap making it easy to position the rubber hoses. Just like the dishwasher I installed earlier, I "test fit" all of the connections before clamping them into place. This works so much better than tightening fittings "as you go" because mistakes can be fixed easily. In my test fitting, I found that I put the bolt heads on the new clamps facing the wrong direction and I needed to twist the hose heading to the water pump about 90 degrees. Once lined-up I tightened the various clamps (using an 8mm socket) to fix the replacement part into place. The picture shows use of the hose clamp tool -- it was a real frustration and time saver.
Finishing-up!
It was now I reached for my used coolant and spied a frog, dead and floating about. I'm pretty sure my cooling system didn't contain any frogs, so this unfortunate amphibian hopped in overnight and couldn't make its way back out again. I've heard that coolant was supposed to taste good, so much there's an additive to make it less attractive tasting to kids, I wonder other animals can't taste the additive or maybe my garage attracts less fortunate frogs.
Makes you wonder about the prevalence and abundance of life -- it's simply everywhere. I wonder what bigger livestock has made its way into my garage when the door is left open? Given the sheer number of deer, raccoons, groundhogs, turkey, squirrels, mice, owls, small children, pheasant, snakes, dogs, and cats spotted in an average week wondering about the yard, I'm betting an open garage attracts more wildlife than I want to know.
