Coolant leak, dripping from sill under rear door

I was cleaning the interior at the weekend, and noticed a couple of drops of coolant on the carpet under the steering wheel (and I do literally mean a couple of drops, the carpet was bone dry).

Made a mental note to myself that it would probably be worth replacing the heater core O rings if it's dry next weekend, but then when I moved the car in to the garage, there was a fair amount of fluid dripping from the sill under the rear o/s door.

If the O rings are perished, is it possible for the fluid to drip down to the o/s sill and run down the side of the vehicle that way, or should I be looking somewhere else as well? Carpet on the drivers side remains dry.

Picture attached looking forwards from the rear o/s wheel - you can see the stain on the garage floor where I haven't mopped it yet.

I have a vague recollection of the same thing happening once last year, when I'd only moved the car the 10 yards or so in to the garage, and dripped coolant from the same place. I topped the coolant up and kept an eye on the level, but it never seemed to lose any more after that.

Endeleus said:

Picture attached looking forwards from the rear o/s wheel - you can see the stain on the garage floor where I haven't mopped it yet.

I have a vague recollection of the same thing happening once last year, when I'd only moved the car the 10 yards or so in to the garage, and dripped coolant from the same place. I topped the coolant up and kept an eye on the level, but it never seemed to lose any more after that.

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Sun roof drian comes out just in front of rear N/S wheel. Anything dripping from there is not coolant.

Interesting theory, but it's a DSE with no sunroof.

I'm pretty sure it was coolant - was a faint pink colour and the level is down in the expansion tank. I'll maybe take it out for a run later and see if I can spot anything leaking.

Edit - also it's the o/s rear door. I should probably have taken a slightly wider angle shot!

Endeleus said:

Interesting theory, but it's a DSE with no sunroof.

I'm pretty sure it was coolant - was a faint pink colour and the level is down in the expansion tank. I'll maybe take it out for a run later and see if I can spot anything leaking.

Edit - also it's the o/s rear door. I should probably have taken a slightly wider angle shot!

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OK, If it's the O/S rear door it ain't going to be the sunroof drain then, not being fitted with a sunroof is also another good reason it's not. But hard to see how coolant could get to back wheel. Unless it has been expelled from from overflow and run along chassis. Any overfill will be expelled when engine is hot. Only fill to level with engine cold.

hi, im please you posted this as my p38 has done it recently too, about 2 or three drops of pink stuff directly under the drivers door pillar half way along the car, both times i had checked the levels within a few days and done a long run (just changed the rad and water pump so parranoid about it having enough coolant in) - i have deliberatly not touched the pressure cap again and just checked the level by shining a torch through the resevoir and nothing has come out since. I felt arounfd and it was definilty dripping from inside the sill so i presumed (read hoped!!) it was an overflow drain.

I think Wammers is on the ball with the overflow - just had a proper look at it and that makes sense now I think of it...

The P38 usually sits in my garage, under the shaded side of the house. Ambient temperature normally around 10 degrees. Unless it snows, or I need to pick up something bulky, it seldom moves from there.

Since it was nice at the weekend, I pulled it out in the sun and spent most of the day cleaning the interior. So my theory now goes something along the line of several hours of sun shining on the bonnet heat up the coolant level (which I've topped up cold somewhere between 5 and 10 degrees) enough that it needs to expel a small amount.

I start the engine, drive a few yards in to the garage, the excess coolant escapes through the overflow, runs down the drivers wheel arch, and trickles down the o/s sill before finally dripping of the sill under the rear door.

I'll try to replicate if it's sunny enough tomorrow, now I have a better idea what I'm looking for. The overflow drain just dumps excess liquid on the wheel arch, so it's feasible it could run down from there, especially with a bit of forward motion.

Try unscrewing the kick strips on the rear door and see if any coolant is under it .
Is the car parked on an incline with the front uphill if so the coolant from heater O rings will collect there.

if the o-rings were leaking that much the carpet would be **** wet through,when you top up the coolant if you fill it to the seam on the expansion tank it will come out the overflow when hot it needs to be about half an inch below the seam.