Thread: pinkish fluid leak?!

It looks like dex-cool coolant. Try to trace the leak.

you elbows look to be leaking.

heres the how to, they cost about 5 bucks and 30 minutes of your time. if your handy with a wrench. http://www.grandprixforums.net/how-c...ows-49779.html

Yeah that's probably the leak if it's on the passenger side. Mine are leaking already, and I just replaced them 4 months ago . At least it's the top one this time.

There are 2 elbows, the other one is under the alternator in the bracket and goes into the front cover for the engine. Yes they are notorious for breaking, leaking, blowing out.
See the third bracket from the left. See how it has 2 plastic elbows in it that is where they are located. Look at that thread that Scotty linked that will answer all your questions.

These were the ones I replaced 4 months ago.


It's a pretty easy job. Just follow the write-up and you should be able to complete it in under an hour. You will loose coolant during the process, I lost 3/4 of a gallon. The elbows may break off in the ports, try to avoid it if you can because the top one can fall in your intake manifold. Just pull straight out once the bolts and hoses are removed.

not all manifolds will allow the elbow to push in, mine has a lip at the end of the inside of the hole.

clean all 4 holes well, scrape/sand or scotch bright pad out any crud in there, and there will be.

chances are both elbows will break when you take the alt bracket off. no big deal your replacing them.

and these elbows are always breaking, or leaking. they have metal ones now.

awesome advise guys and the write up is great too. ok so I found the replacements on rockauto but im curious to know if the aluminum elbows are the way to go? I see the obvious benefit of them is not breaking but how is the actual seal?

Having plastic potentially bend valves and damage pistons or the head is a big no-no. Pull off the upper intake if you have a gt, remove the supercharger if you have it. Great time to fix play in the coupler too.

But yeah. Definitely get that out.

plastic wont bend valves or pistons, worst it will do is cause misfire by covering a spark plug and fouling your o2 sensor

lol, other guy had me thinking it was in the induction.

i would take the LIM off, chances are you need to change the gaskets anyway.

They will not break like the plastic ones(takes years to break). However, I hear the same results about the aluminum elbow o-rings sealing, as I do the plastic ones.(probably the same o-rings are used) If this will be your first time replacing them, I recommend using the updated plastic ones because the aluminum ones will not bend. If you are inserting the assembly and trying to get the bolt holes to line up again, and tilt it too far one way, you may actually crack your timing cover (the inlet for the coolant passage). But with this warning, you should be able to pull it off. Just a warning.

By updated plastic elbows, Dorman's plastic elbows were almost always failing after around a year of use. The plastic would get brittle and crack, or catastrophically fail. They came out with a newer design that fixed that issue, most likely making them comparable to the OEM elbows that lasted for around a decade. Here is a NAPA search, you can see two plastic models. The higher part # is the one you want (I don't think they carry the old ones anymore anyway)
http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Re...0060%2b2060016

I'm not sure what version of the plastic elbows advance and oriellys carries, the part #'s don't match up. Or you could go with the aluminum elbows.

i'm honestly laughing aloud about a cooling elbow in the cooling tract and someone saying positively about it causing issues beyond a clogged coolant passage. Please guys.. take a minute and think about what you are saying by thinking about where which fluids etc flow. If you reason things out.. you'll find you have a much better diagnostic ability and will spend a lot less time chasing after things that can't happen.

Metal elbows won't break? Hahahahaha I already broke one on Billy's car. They were RTV'd in and yup.. it broke easy. For you guys that swear by the alumunimun's w/o time/testing and suggest RTV, I believe you will find similar experiences.

So you're saying aluminum will still break? Under 10 years of use (like the plastic ones) or abuse? And I know the seals are no better than on the plastic ones.
I put a thin coating of rtv on my seal area before installing mine, and they are seeping now. It was the blue stuff though. High temp would have been more sensible but still, they shouldn't leak at all and don't require any rtv.

I also laughed about a plastic piece in a coolant passage getting into the actual intake passages, that was a