OVER HEATING COOLIANT LEAKING STUDLES WHILE DRIVEING

AUTHENTICSIGS45

MEMBER
2000 MERCURY MARQUIS
4.3L
6 CYL
AUTOMATIC

BEEN HAVING TO FILL THE COOLIANT CONTAINER AS IT OVER HEATS LOOSING COOLIANT. LOOKS LIKE ITS COMING FROM THE WATER PUMP OF THE LEAK NOT SURE. SEEMS TO NOT LEAK AS MUCH WHEN I JUST ADD WATER IN THE TANK RESIVOR CONTAINER THEN COOLIANT. SEEMS ALSO WHEN PARKED ON A DRIVEWAY OR SLIGHT HILL IT SEEMS TO LEAK BUT NOT AS MUCH FLAR PARKED. IM GOING TO TRY THE THERMASTAT REPLACEING FIRST SEE HOW THAT GOES. ANY IDEAS OR HELP BE GREATFUL AS IM JUST A ROOKIE CAR GUY. THANKS

Sunday, August 17th, 2014 AT 10:15 AM

3 Replies

FREEMBA

MECHANIC
1,152 POSTS

You're right. Your car does have a coolant leak. You can either have a shop to pressure test the cooling system to find the leak (this is a very effective test) or you can park on a hill and look under the hood and slide under the car to locate the leak.

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Sunday, August 17th, 2014 AT 10:57 AM

AUTHENTICSIGS45

MEMBER
1 POST

WOULD ADDING ANY OF THE COOLIANT SEAL LIQUIDS WOULD HELP IT FROM LEAKING? SOME OF THE GOOD STUFF WHERE ITS 30$ A JUG. I DID A SCAN WITH MY MAXISCAN OBD II TOOL AND CAME WITG P1299 CODE. THANKS FOR THE HELP.

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Sunday, August 17th, 2014 AT 11:18 AM

FREEMBA

MECHANIC
1,152 POSTS

Code 1299 means: Cylinder Head Over Temperature Protection Active. (Caused by the fact that the engine is overheating)
Meaning that the computer "sees" that the cylinder head is overheating and activates a fail-safe cooling strategy.

Personally I don't recommend using those coolant seal liquids (stop-leak and the like). It is better in the long run to locate and repair the leak manually. A Cooling
System Pressure Test is a reliable way to locate the leak. I've used it countless times and 9 out of 10 times I've been able to locate the leak.

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Sunday, August 17th, 2014 AT 4:33 PM