Got out of truck this afternoon and noticed steam coming out from under the hood. I started looking around and found the leak about 4 inches away from the top rad hose. I'm not real sure what I'm looking at, but I know it isn't the rad hose and I don't think its the thermostat, but I could be wrong.

The only thing I can think of a reason for this is I had to jump on the truck today to get out of the way of a speeding truck, actually had the revs in the 5000+ range and the next thing I know I have a leak.

The truck is a 2005 with 132,000 miles. It has a 4.0 V6. All services have been done at 5000 mile intervals since it was new. This is the 1st thing that has ever went wrong, so any help would be appreciated

BD

 

Is it in the radiator itself? If it is, talk to a shop about repair or replacement based on how bad the leak is.

 

It turned out to be the thermostat housing.

Thanks for your help

 

My 2002's cooling system started showing its bad side after having my local Ford dealership flush it. It had just over 170K miles on it when done and then the little leaks appeared. I had a leak that had me convinced my thermostat housing cracked (I searched online and read a lot of threads about this). I did replace the housing with a new 192 thermostat, but it turned out that the bypass hose under the housing had a pinhole leak. Fixed that, but then the radiator's right side plastic tank developed a pinhole leak where the top hose connected to it. I decided then to replace everything I could think of being that the rest of the system was still original. Not long before the flush I replace the fan clutch along with a new Motorcraft fan blade. The old blade was cracked in several places and wobbled a lot.

When it comes to the cooling system on these trucks it's best in my opinion to replace EVERYTHING at the same time or you'll find yourself trying to patch one problem after another continuously.

When my 2002 got flushed I also found a "muddy" mess in it as well as in my reservoir tank. It isn't oil and the new coolant is still crystal clear green.