Hi! I've got a 1997 3.8L V6 camaro with about 130K miles. My husband got home from work the other day and bam- coolant on the floor accompanied by what my son called a "burnt burrito" smell. Anyway, we've known it had a leak somewhere and clearly overlooked it a little bit too long. There was never any coolant on the floor before, but we'd have to add coolant every so often when it got low. So, I need to troubleshoot this thing and see if I can fix it. I just read another coolant leak thread for the last 30 minutes, and realize this could be pretty significant depending where the leak is located. So, I'm asking all you seasoned mechanics- where do I start? I think when I get home tonight I will check the oil to see if it has coolant in it, and depending on that I will move on to the next step. We have not started the car since the puddle showed up, and I don't want to do anything wrong. Hopefully I can fix it! You guys were very helpful a while ago when I was getting the fuel pump replaced, so what better place to go for questions than right back here! (And perhaps when this problem is resolved, you all can help me diagnose an oil leak!)

 

Step one would be to look for obvious leaks and puddles under the hood. You will need a light and look all around. Check your hoses try to feel around the ends. Do you have a safe way to raise the car? Normally with you want to trace back to the source but Camaro are very low sitting cars.

Coolant leak like any other leak can be tuff to track down because while you driving the wind pushes the coolant around so it may be dripping from point A on the frame but most of the coolant was blown there from the front of the motor. This is where a pressure tester comes in handy. I am sure you read in the other thread about borrowing a pressure tester. Then you can just search Youtube on how to use it.

Because they are so low Camaro tend to be a pain to get them up in the air. it is very easy to damage a car by how you jack so make sure you know what you are doing and where the jack is lifting.

 

I'll look up how to lift it. I'll also look into getting a pressure tester also. Auto zone will probably rent me one. So I'll start looking around under the hood and then get back with more questions. Thanks Gorn! (Star Trek fan perhaps?)

 

Short for Aragorn, which has been my online gaming handle since the 90's.

 

make sure u lift it properly as those put jack right under fender are risking injury or damage as I've seen the wheel well bow/ bend, use the frame and b safe

 

is the coolant on the floor of the garage or the floor in the car?

 

Craby-- It is on the floor of the garage.

ok. So I went out today and checked the oil. It looked fine to me, like normal oil on the dipstick. I checked under the oil fill cap and that looked fine.

i did a quick look and found some coolant sitting down near the main gasket(??). So what it looks like I'll have to do is take the top part of the engine off and replace that gasket - air intake gasket? Main head gasket? I don't know what the gasket is called but it's definitely leaked from that general area. Ill have to check my camaro book to figure out what part it actually is. I'll see if I can attach a photo I took. I drew a yellow arrow showing where I see coolant sitting on the engine.

**ok so I don't know how to get a picture from my phone onto here. Can someone tell me?**

Im not going to put it up on jacks or run a pressure test until I fix the problem at the top of the engine. I'm not even starting the car until this repair is done. I'm hoping that keeps any coolant from going where it shouldn't and crossing my fingers that it hasn't already gone where it shouldn't.

 

not sure about the smart phones nowadays but photobucket works good. just copy img code to post.

 

So the Haynes manual says to clamp off the coolant hoses leading to the throttle bottle. Do I have to actually clamp them or just remove them? And do I need to drain the coolant before doing this? I managed step 1- disconnect the battery. Step 2 and I'm already like dang. What do I do?

 

Well, I found a video on a different thread and have gotten the coolant draining! Hooray! I'm just going to keep following the video. It's very informational!