I have a 1995 3.0 that is having some weird problems. For some reason when I leave my car outside of the garage when I come out the next morning there is some antifreeze on the ground. not a lot but enough to have me concerned. Any ideas as to why this is happening. I thought it might be a temperature fluctuation. Living in the southwest we get fairly chilly at night then heat up in the day. the hoses look good and i think i am still using the stock hose clips...the ones where you just use pliers to open. i was thinking the metal is expanding and contracting but not sure...otherwise with 120k miles she is running like a champ. thanks in advance just a weird problem..

 

Water pump leaking around the edges?

 

Never thought about that would the waterpump leak when the car is off. If it is the waterpump how are they to change...I have recently done the timing belt about 4 months ago and the water pump looked good..probably should have changed it...how dangerous is it to drive it this way... how expensive is it to change a water pump...

 

It could also be your hoses leaking around the edge where they contact the radiator and engine.
Often they become corroded and need to be scraped clean (I would get new hoses and clamps too).
Water pumps are a pain to change so you want to be darn sure that is the problem first.

 

Waterpumps have "weep holes" in them designed to leak coolant when they are about to croak. Like Jamie said, make sure that is the problem before you shell out the money. Expect to be somewhere in the $300 range for parts and labor if that is the problem. I think they are about $90 for the OEM part alone.

Try cleaning and wiping the engine, then following the trail of coolant to its source.

 

i tried tracing the coolant however now its not leaking it looks to be near the hose/waterpump location...if the waterpump is going belly up how safe is it to drive it. i dont want to pay 300 bucks for nothing if you know what i mean. i did the timing belt myself however i had help that has since moved...waterpump looks to be a pain. also i think my radiator is going because it has crud buildup on one side..nasty stuff dont know why it is there...

 

make sure you dont just have too much coolant in your reserve tank and its just spitting out what the tank cant hold

 

That is impossible to say. I drove our leaking Nissan Maxima 200 miles. The pump never officially went out, I just had it replaced.