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I started smelling coolant in the cab but I could not see anything dripping on the ground. I open the hood and check all the hoses and did not find anything. A few days ago, I notice a small spot in the driveway but it evaporated and then again, I had a larger spot that late afternoon without driving the truck that day. Not sure if heat was forcing out the fluid (was in the low 90s).
Started truck and laid under it for about five minutes and nothing. All of the sudden it’s dripping all over and it looks like the coolant is coming from the heater core drain tube that comes through the firewall. As most of you know, it’s not a simple task to check if a connection is loose. Any other things it could be or something I should check before I try and throw parts at this thing to get it fixed?
You could bypass it and see if the loss stops, just need a 5/8" hose barb from your local hardware store. Expect the quick connects to fail, Gates makes good replacement ones. 28500.
Not a hard job, just takes a while. I did mine in a day. Suggest the heavy duty blend door while in there
coming from the heater core drain tube that comes through the firewall.
That's the AC evaporator (where the cold is made) condensate drain port. There's a tray underneath it and the heater core designed to catch condensed water and guide it outside. If you're sure it's coolant and not condensate then your heater core is probably leaking. Was the system set to one of the settings that uses the AC compressor? Turn it to Off and see if it happens again.
The truck was sitting for a few days and everything is turned off. I started the truck and after a few minutes, it starts leaking from that drain port. It’s orange/yellow color so I’m going with coolant.
Last edited by SARDiverDan; Mar 6, 2026 at 11:08 AM.
I need to put together a list of all the parts I need so I can switch it all out when I get in there as I don’t want to attempt this again any time soon.
Maybe this happened...?! Did you make anyone mad lately lol?! I feel for ya, had a friend that had to do his, he was NOT mechanically inclined but managed to get it done over a weekend, I was on stby for helping him, he had a zillion baggies labeled with where everything came from, I was impressed he accomplished it without assistance!
Most of the fasteners are 7mm as I recall. Grab a cheap set of plastic pry tools as to not mar the trim, good time to vacuum all over and Simple Green piles else
Yep, bag and tag all the stuff as you will forget what goes where. Painters tape and perm marker or some old notebook paper cut down for each sack.
It will go WAY faster with help so they can tag everything for you. Recommend a beer case on hand as well as a Red Baron or grilled hotdogs.
Since coolant will be all over, consider doing that 'P' shaped gasket that retains the oil filter to the adapter. Both of mine were weeping oil, easy just a messy job.
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