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Leaking Redish colored fluid

2K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  JohnWR 
#1 ·
I live in upstate NY and drove about 3 mi back home..very hot humid day. Everything was fine, car ran great. After I parked in driveway, went out about an hour latet and there was a large stream of redish fluid under car and down driveway. Looked like it came from a little right of the center of engine. Any clues?? PSF, trans fluid, oil????
Thanks, Sue
 
#2 ·
Welcome to the forum, I'm sorry you are having a problem.

The fluids most commonly red are power steering and automatic transmission. Dex-cool antifreeze is orange.

PS and ATF fluids will be oily to the touch and smell like petroleum. Antifreeze will smell almost sweet.

Motor oil will range from almost clear to black, depending on how long it has been in the engine.
 
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#3 ·
Do you have a GXP? A "large stream" is probably your coolant. I'm guessing your waterpump went bad. A VERY common failure around the 40k to 65k mile mark on the GXP. Not as common on a 2.4L car, but still does happen. It's about $1000 at a dealership to have it done. And it must be done correctly or you will get a nasty whine. A pic might help us with identification of the fluid....if you can.
 
#6 ·
Yes...that looks like power steering or transmission. With phones nowadays, I'm assuming that's from the passenger side, right? Have you had it flushed lately?
 
#8 ·
Good luck. A waterpump isn't cheap and the instructions MUST be adhered to, word for word. Otherwise the entire front of the mltor has to come off if they don't follow the instructions to the "T".

On a side note, I was hesitant to say it was power steering or trans fluid....the viscosity just didn't look right, but against that white cloth it looks deep red, which is odd...
 
#10 ·
Soup's correct, but if the waterpump had a catastrophic or near-catastrophic failure, that could be the source. Usually when they start to fail they leak slowly and usually only when hot. There have been some reports of them actually puking totally, however.
 
#13 ·
you got a great price!
 
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