Coolant suddenly Leaking from 2 places

[Giovatl]

I have been adding coolant to the overflow container and it has been vacuumed into the radiator. Then today I started driving and the Ranger started smoking. When I opened the hood coolant was leaking from the plastic part connecting heater hoses near the a/c accumulator(see pic) and from the lower hose off the radiator. What happened? Did the system get overpressured and leak at the weakest points. I have never had a coolant leak before. Also, what is the part near the a/c accumulator connecting the heater hoses?

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

when cooling systems go, they seem to go all at once.

the part near the a/c accumulator is your heater control valve. its a very common leak point on your generation of truck.

 

[Giovatl]

Was it a bad idea to fill from the overflow reservoir and why did it not leak before I filled the system? It seems like the pressure increased when I topped it off. Does this sound right? Would low coolant level give you a lower system pressure?

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

its never a bad idea to keep your fluids up to their full marks

the leaks are undoubtedly unrelated to your topping the cooling system off. adding coolant doesnt increase the systems pressure.

 

[rurouni20xx]

increased pressure is caused by blockages and such in the system, when was the last time your coolant was changed/flushed? when you look in your radiator do you see rust in your system (brownish gunk)? do you use your heater often or run it every so often (heater cores are bad about stopping up from rust in the system.) just a few simple questions, if you do all the above and its serviced regularly w/ no rust its prob just a simple leak, but it never hurts to have it looked at since this maybe a lil prob caused by these things and easier to fix now w/ lil prob then have the whole system go due to the underlying problem getting bigger.

 

[Giovatl]

I am thinking when I topped off the system maybe the rust in the upper half of the radiator broke loose. I need to check this weekend. Will flushing help clean the system of rust scale?

Gio

 

[rurouni20xx]

yes it will but see if you have any in your system first, if not then it wont fix anything. also when you go to fix your leak on your heater control valve take a water hose and rinse thru your heater core and see what comes out the other end. if its full of rust and such this may be your problem and flushing will help. if nothing comes out then its def plugged. just something to look at while your doing the repair. id fix it first then do a visual inspection unless its been over 50k miles since the cooling system was serviced.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Those heater control valves just seem to have a habbit of just randomly leaking.

 

[snomaker321]

mine started leaking a few months ago randomly. replaced the valve and havent had a problem since.

 

[rurouni20xx]

like i said may just be a minor thing but never hurts to check.

 

[pacodiablo]

The heater control valve just leaks. A new Motorcraft one is around $20 at the dealer IIRC, and surely cheaper than that at any parts store. It takes minutes to replace.

 

[Giovatl]

Guess what? I flushed the system, replaced the heater control valve and now the radiator does not leak. How do you figure.

 

[rurouni20xx]

like i said it is prob just a simple thing but never hurts to check everything to make sure your not about to have a problem, since you had the system down and all anyway.