Dodge Caravan coolant leaking on the right side of engine

hu1992

I kept finding my coolant leaking. But I cannot locate where the leak was. Yesterday the first time the temprature went to roof. I stopped the van immediately and then I heard the steam buzz. I looked at the bottom of the van and found the steam came from the the passenger side after the engine. And the coolant was completely gone. I added two gallans of the coolant and made it home. Is it the water pump o-ring problem? How difficulty to change it?

See Also
How To Find & Fix Coolant Leaks

hu1992

I found where the leak is. There are two lines of pipes across from the front to the back. Each line is composed of one solid metal pipe connect to the engine, a 8 inches rubber pipe and another solid metal pipe to the back. Just before the rubble pipe, the erosion eats the metal pipe. If the car is not running, no leaking. When the car is running, the pressure makes leaking. How do I replace the metal pipe?

masterpaul1

It's funny you mentioned this. We just had the same pipes replaced last week on our 01 DGC with 114K, because of corrosion. We had no leaks, but they were rusted pretty bad and have been doing so for the past few years. (I've had my share of this kind of problem from my old cars, when pipes under it rusted out. So I learned my lesson.) It cost us about $500 at the dealer. The replacement pipes are made of non-corrosive metal.

leoman09

I just noticed today that I have the same problem. What are those pipes called? Yeah I keep putting coolant in my radiator and after a few days its down again.

hu1992

I don't know what these pipes are called. I guess that they are for colling the backend AC. The way I fixed it costed me less than $2. The hole was just one inch before the rubble pipe. I cut it out and buy the new longer (1 foot) rubble pipe to replace the old rubble pipe.

leoman09

Mine is right at the fitting. I was thinking about using rubber hose and bypass the metal pipes but I was just curious how much the metal ones were.

masterpaul1

They costed around $200 for all parts from the dealer. Those pipes are the coolant that runs to the back of the van for heat. (It runs to another heater coil for the rear heat.) I would caution you to only replace it with metal piping only and not rubber hoses. Since they run under the vechicle, they can get damaged very easily.

tcreason

Thanks for all the information. How hard is this to do ourselves at home? How long does it take? Would it be a bad decision to get this part used at a junk yard????

almhurst

I was getting intermittent heat; I checked there was no coolant in the reserrvoir. I added a full bottle. Rightaway, I heard all the reservoir coolant leaked away, even without starting engine. I added coolant to the radiator, and it stayed there. What could be the cause? I will apreiate any input.

shipo

It seems fairly obvious that either the reservoir is cracked, or the hose that connects it to the radiator by the pressure cap is broken or detached.

mike416

I have a 1999 Plymouth Voyager van that is leaking engine coolant. upon closer look, it appears to be coming from an oval hole on the block of the engine, located on the passenger side near the back of the block....
coolant streams out even when engine is not running
any ideas

papa2many

The oval recess in the block is called a freeze plug. It is an expansion plug designed to protect the engine from freeze damage. Many mechaics agree that the so called "long term" coolant, should not be used too long. the coolant corrodes the plug from the inside. This can be a DIY, but as much as I like to do it myself, I had a mechanic do it for less than $100. This was 2 years, 26,000 miles ago, and have had no more problems.

billjohns

what causes the resevior bottle for soolant to constantly need to be refilled