Richardmozis

I have got a small coolant leak at the front of the engine which gets onto the belt which is damp and smells of coolant. What should I do? Would radiator stop leak products work? My coolant reservoir has been full for months so this leak is small but it smells. Here is a photo of the mess.

DG83 C55

Can you see if the leak is coming from the waterpump that is right in the middle of the belt? Might need a mirror but you should be able to see if its coming from there.

Damian

JonMBZ

Fix it right, find the leak and replace the part.

Saaboteur

The water pump is behind the pulley that is blurry in the photo, on the left. If it's not leaking from there, the other area where coolant flows is at the thermostat, more centrally located, where the upper rad hose connects. Check that out too. Best of luck!

Saaboteur

Oh, almost forgot - coolant also runs through the oil cooler, there are a couple lines there that lead to the water pump cover closer to the left/driver's side (but to the right in the picture) of the motor. Have a look at those as well.

Richardmozis

So basically I had a good look at the water pump, thermostat, and oil cooler. They are all clean. After another good look the worst area is near the bottom on the drivers side.

91RS

That looks like the A/C compessor that's leaking. AC refrigerant oil with dye is typically green. The coolant in these cars should be blue unless someone has changed it to green (which would be stupid).

And for the record, DO NOT use stop leak products! All they do is cause more problems clogging up all kinds of stuff, like small coolant passages and the thermostat.

Richardmozis

The coolant is supposed to be blue? I looked at multiple clk55 and c55 cars locally and they all had green coolant. Also there is a coolant smell coming from the engine bay and filling my garage, It can't be the ac causing that smell.....

Saaboteur

My Mercedes coolant is orangey-yellow. But yeah, as 91RS said, the green is AC refrigerant, and it looks to be pooling at the AC compressor's pulley.

Can you see if the AC lines off the compressor are loose? Could be one of the rubber o-rings on the lines have blown.

Are you getting cold AC?

Viper98912

I thought the factory MB coolant is blue.

Scott Simoncic

Mine is blue... That's what Mercedes of San Jose put in from a white jug that Said Mercedes Benz Anticorrosion / Anti-Freeze on it.. And yes, that has all the look of being dyed refrigerant from the air conditioning system..

Richardmozis

Thanks for the help guys. I should probably flush the green coolant and put in an MB one.

You guys are talking about the mess being the ac compressor. I do get ice cold ac in the car fast. The previous owner had the compressor replaced before I bought the car.....

Saaboteur

Richard, did you get the leak sorted out?

I have to clarify my previous comments re: coolant (post #9). I was confused because my buddy had given me some spare Land Rover coolant in a Mercedes jug, and that stuff is orangey-yellow. I was reminded of this the other day when I picked up some genuine Mercedes blue fluid! Doh! Good thing I never put any of that into my AMGs!

Newzchspy

Other than the above, dimes to donuts we got an IC leak going here. Very common with the C32/SRT-6

Saaboteur

Except Richard's car is a naturally aspirated C55!

Newzchspy

Oops, thought it was FI! My bad