Hi everyone! I am new to the forum. Two weeks ago I bought a 2002 Hyundai Elantra GLS with 185K miles on it for my daughter to drive to high school and college. It has been a good little car with a lot of power. Since we bought it we put about 180 miles on it with no overheating issues or engine problems. The only issue was the condenser was damaged and I replaced it with a new one. I did the job myself. Since I was there I decided to flush the radiator and reservoir tank. When it came to refill with coolant I used UView 550000 Airlift cooling system air bleeder which i've used before on my 2005 Chevy Aveo. It uses an air compressor to vacuum the lines and refills the engine with coolant with a breeze. Problem I noticed was it never held a vacuum which tells me there was a leak. I checked the radiator and upper and lower hoses I didn't see anything visible. I went ahead and filled the radiator with coolant by just pouring coolant in from the jug. I ran the car for a while until it got operating temp and then I notice coolant dripping from a corner of the oil pan. Specifically, left side corner of the pan (belts side) closest to the firewall. It was just a slow drip. I placed a cup to catch some of it and it was antifreeze. I topped the coolant and drove it around town, did a few errands while keeping an eye on the temp gauge. No overheating. Got home and checked and it still had a slow dip in the same area. The following morning I checked the radiator for coolant and I didn't see any. I checked the tank which I had topped off full and most of it was gone. I checked under the car and it was dry as a bone. I filled the radiator up again with coolant and squeezed the hoses a bit to burp out any air that's when I saw the drip again. I hadn't even started the engine and it was dripping again. I can't seem to find where the leaking is coming from. I hate to think it could be the head gasket but this issue never showed up until I worked on the condenser. Could the Airlift tool damaged something? What areas should I check for? Water pump maybe? I checked the motor oil and oil cap and it does not look milky. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

Pressure test the cooling system.
Visual inspection and run hands along .. feel for wetness.

 

I did a pressure test and the leaks seems to be coming from the crankshaft then running down along the side of the oil pan. Hard to see but it seems like it leaking form behind the timing cover. Could it be the water pump that is leaking? I don't see anything coming out of the weep hole. Could my vacuum did anything to it?

 

The water pump would be my guess.

 

Check to see if the timing belt is due for replacement
If it is then change it and the water pump (along with the idler and tensioner pulleys)
If it isn't then you probably want to see if the leak is from the water pump anyway.

 

I turned out to be a freeze plug in front of the engine. It had a small leak but you couldn't see it because the engine mount was in the way and could not see it. Replaced the plug and no leaks. Done!

 

Thanks for the update
It will really help others

 

Sure no problem. Since we bought the Elantra used from a private seller little was known about the car. Between me and my 17 year old daughter we replaced the timing belt, water pump, and both pulley. Took two days to do it this being our first time doing a timing belt on this car. It still had the original Hyundai water pump. Car has 135k miles. Took one day to take everything apart, second day to put everything back together. We took our time. The last time I did a timing belt was on my 1993 Geo Metro 3 cylinder engine. Pretty straight forward.

 

Hi everyone,

Not sure if this will be useful but I thought it was worth sharing after visiting a couple of forums along with this one and googling an issue I encountered yesterday.

My girlfriend's 2002 hyundai elantra sprung a coolant leak from the oil pump, there appears to be a tiny hairline crack or hole in the oil pump housing. I haven't been in the trade for some time so it took me a bit to figure out what it was but it's clearly visible from the housing to the left of the crankshaft pulley. Definitely not an area I'd expect a coolant leak to occur. The car has done about 285k km and has otherwise been very reliable. Any advice for anything to watch out for when replacing the oil pump would be greatly appreciated, but hopefully it's a smooth fix if we can get hold of the pump, not an easy part to come by. Hopefully chemweld will do the job in the short term! Again not sure how helpful it'll be but thought it was worth sharing.