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Hey Everyone. I noticed I had a small leak somewhere dripping in the snow when I put the car in the garage. Anyone know what pressure the system needs to be to check it.

DRyanC

DRyanC,Jan 29 2009, 08:17 PM Wrote:Hey Everyone. I noticed I had a small leak somewhere dripping in the snow when I put the car in the garage. Anyone know what pressure the system needs to be to check it.

DRyanC
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You usually remove the rad cap, pressurize it to 18-20 pounds and check the bleed-down. You have to have the fitting that seals the guage to where the cap screws on though to do it properly, a place like Princess Auto might have one.

It could be a cracked thermostat housing. It's a common problem with the zetec. You will probably see only a few drops from roughly around the area of where the transmission meets the engine.

The part is about $75 from Ford and takes about an hour to do yourself.

Link to fix instructions

Thanks guys. I have a pressure tester. I only pumped it up to 10 pounds last night, like I said I didn't know what the system runs at. The first time I pumped it to 10psi it drop to 5 in about 20 min. so I pumped it back to 10 and it never moved. I will try 18 tonight. I guess 10 psi is not enough to move the coolant out of the leak.

DRyanC

My T-stat housing has been replaced twice since I have had the car. It would be a good place to start.

My money is cracked tstat housing.

Just did my tstat last month, its fairly easy to see if you are leaking enoigh

10psi should be plenty ... if you put to much pressure in the system you can make things leak that normally wouldn't under regular pressure .. and you also run the risk of having your heater core break due to having to much pressure in the system.

put a piece of cardboard down under the car and that way you can tell where the leak is coming from

I haven't had a chance to look over everything again, hopefully tonight.

DRyanC