2008 Acura tl type s, automatic, 45 000 km.

I just changed the brake pads this morning to the duralast cmax gold, which I feel went perfectly fine. I went out to the outskirts of town to bed them in and on the way back I went pretty fast over uneven road and I heard a sound, which to be honest did not sound that bad. However, when i pull into my driveway to inspect my brakes, I notice there is fluid dripping out of my car. It's clear, and has the same viscosity as water. I pop my hood and I notice my radiator's reservoir is below the minimum which makes me pretty damn sure that it's coolant leaking out. I jack up the car and I locate the leak, it's coming out of this black rubber hole on the passenger side, behind the wheel. See pics.

Red is highlighting the black rubber tube that is leaking the fluid. Is there supposed to be something on the end sealing this tube??? Blue is circling the part where I'm not sure if it is damaged. Can somebody with experience please advise if anything looks out of the ordinary??




Closeup of the leaking tube


Anything look damaged here???


Please advise, I'm pretty worried I screwed something up pretty badly.

 

My coolant reservoir is nearly empty now. I just went out and looked again, nothing looks scraped or damaged. Any ideas???

 

Hard to get my bearings from your pictures, but I believe that tube is the drain for the A/C, perfectly normal.

 

The pictures were taken from the passenger side, behind the front wheel, pointed towards the front of the car.

It was quite cool outside, the HVAC was NOT set on auto, it was just set on fanspeed 1 and 28C (82F) so would AC have even gone on? Regardless, when I compare the coolant reservoir from when I first noticed the drip to now, the reservoir is lower and now is way below the minimum.

What should I refill the reservoir with? I'm assuming it has the OEM blue coolant, can I just buy from the dealer and add more?

 

Ok so according to this thread, apparently the leaking tube is the AC drain. http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f101...service-70035/

Which makes me feel a lot better, but now my question is, why is the coolant reservoir pretty much empty now?!?!?

 

OK, if that's passenger side just in front of the firewall, then it's the A/C drain tube, nothing to worry about and totally separate from the coolant system.

Use only Honda Type II (blue).

Fill your reservoir back to normal limits and observe the level for the next couple of days. If it's still going down with no signs of leaks anywhere, could be a head gasket.

 

Alright, just read your post over here: https://acurazine.com/forums/showpos...84&postcount=8

So I'm going to look for Honda Type II (blue) coolant and top it off.

Would it matter that when I was breaking in the pads, I continually damn near floored the car about 8-10 times + slam on brakes, cruised for 15 min, then floored it 8-10 times again and cruised home??

And how do I explain my coolant reservoir level dropping in the period of a little over an hour from 2 cm below the min line to pretty much empty, with the car off??

 

when the car is off the coolant drops back down into the reservoir, this is normal. the coolant is always at a higher level right when you shut the car off. maybe you were low before so fill it up and then keep an eye on it to see if anything is leaking.

 

I think it's normal. After i lowered my car i wentover a speed bumper pretty fast, and heard a *CLANK* as my car crashed down. I looked underneath and started freaking out because i see drips of liquid coming down.

Took it to a mechanic and he said that was from the A/C. I drove around more with the A/C off, came out took a look, no more dripping.

I turned the A/C back on, drove around, got out, looked, and it was dripping.

Thus I concluded, it was the A/C.

 

Yea I'm not longer worried about the dripping being coolant as I've come to the conclusion that it's just the AC. I'm just puzzled about the why the coolant reservoir is essentially empty right now. I don't see how I could have blown the head gasket. Would this be covered under warranty if it's the case??

 

Headgasket should be covered under warranty. Check the oil to make sure no coolant is getting into it. If it is, drain oil immediately as most coolants will eat the bearings even if the engine is off. Fill with new oil, run for a minute and shut it off.

The level changes quite a bit from hot to cold, normal expansion and contraction. That's the whole reason for the overflow tank.

Mine leaked from the rubber tube from the overflow to the radiator. It was just enough to make the level go down over time but not enough to notice until enough of it had leaked to cause a little buildup. A zip tie fixed the problem. Is it possible that you had only checked the level hot previously?

 

Quite frankly I'd be shocked if my head gasket were to go so soon, but I'll definitely check my oil tomorrow morning (looking for chocolate milkshake-like-oil).

I unscrewed my radiator cap and it's still full, yet reservoir is near empty. The dealer isn't open on sundays so I can't top up the coolant yet, you guys reckon it's still safe to drive? In theory, the reservoir should fill as the car gets warmer, right?

I haven't checked the coolant level for at least 10 000km. I believe back then it was just slightly above the minimum. When I checked today, it was after about an hour drive so the car would have been fully warmed up and the reservoir should be on the high end. Regardless, I'll check in the morning what the level is at and top it up as soon as I can.

 

You can fill it with distilled water. Absolutely no issues with doing that. You have 2 gallons in the cooling system so diluting it with with a few ounces of distilled water won't hurt a thing especially in the summer time. That's all the factory premix is anyway. Coolant with distilled water in a 50/50 mix.

As soon as it heats up and cools off a couple times it will turn blue in the reservior again.

 

This

 

Ah man I'm a little late