Is My Car Leaking

Hey, everyone. Sue here from 1A Auto, and today I want to go over with you all the fluids in your car, all the clean ones, and then the used ones.

So first I want to talk to you about washer fluid. There's all different types of fluid out there, different temperature range in different colors. We're used to old school just blue, but then they came out with the orange and the green, and they all mean different things, including range of temperature outside. All depends on where you live.

So this particular washer fluid, the green one, is good for 32 degrees, that's Fahrenheit. The orange one is good for negative 25 degrees Fahrenheit, and then the blue is good for negative 20. So I like to go with the lowest temperature available here in New England.

If you think you have a washer fluid leak, and you see something on the ground, washer fluid's not going to break down, because it's not in a engine or radiator. It doesn't reach temperature. It just stays in a reserve, a reserve tank, and comes out onto the windshield.

So sometimes you have a... luckily, you have just a washer fluid leak. You could always just take a clean rag, dab it on the ground, and you got to see the color in the material. So you'll say, "Hmm, blue, what else is blue in my car? Just washer fluid." Let's see if the pink or the orange show. Let's see if the orange does the same thing. Oh yeah, that's definitely orange, and that's definitely green. So it's a quick way to find out if you have a washer tank that has a crack in it. Fluid came out when you woke up in the morning, don't have to panic.

So now let's talk about engine and transmission fluid in your car. So we have a sample of used oil here, basic standard clean oil, used transmission fluid, and a basic red automatic transmission fluid. This is also known as ATF. So this is what they look like once they've been running the car for several thousand miles, and so they look clean. I say we see what it looks like once you put it on tar so you can identify it.

What did you think, I was going to poison the environment? Heck, no. I got chips of tar to show you. So I want to show you what it would look like on the ground, right? It's soaks into the asphalt once it's been out there for a while. So on this side, I poured some of the used oil, the dirty oil. And if you take a clean rag, you think you have a spill under your car, you haven't had a oil change recently, just take a clean rag and dab it. You'll see the darkness in the color. And the smell of it, you can smell the difference between ATF, which is automatic tranny fluid, or engine oil.

Now if you just had an oil change, which this is kind of common, sometimes they don't clean up after on the frame of the car. If you get clean rag, just dab it, and you'll see it's in the transparency of the clean oil compared to the dirty oil. And you might have this too. And it could be when they took the filter off of your car, they made a mess. This is a good, quick way, the clean rag, once it hits the asphalt, pick up the color, it soaks in.

Here we have our automatic tranny fluid, ATF. I did the same on this chip of tar. It's been sitting for a while. So let's see if it's soaks in. It's got a little brownish. See, it's like a dark brown tinge? It's got a red to it, right? Look at the oil difference. There is a difference. And here is the clean ATF. See the red?

So I just want to tell you the difference, my opinion, of the smell. So say you have the white rag, and you do the old oil test, and then you do another test, and you say, "I don't know if it's tranny fluid or engine oil." So you can see the color difference. But just in case the oil is extremely old, when you smell used oil, it has a bit of a low metallic smell to it. But ATF tranny fluid, when you smell it, it has a higher pitch ATF smell. It smells higher pitch of a oil. It's the best way I can tell you how I describe or detect oil on the ground, whether it's ATF or engine oil.

Now, brake fluid. So what we're going to do is talk about the two types that's most common type of brake fluid in the vehicles. You have DOT 3 and DOT 4. The difference between the two is temperature range. This has a higher boiling point, not that your brake fluid boils, but that's just the way they describe it. So it's also for race cars, high-end cars, you'll find more of that in. And then DOT 3 is for your average car or truck.

They pretty much look the same. You're never going to see a change in it. But this is dirty brake fluid, and this is clean brake fluid. The same with the DOT 4. We have some dirty and some clean. So I'm only going to show you one on the tar chip because they're probably going to look the same. If you do a quick sample on the dirty and the clean on a white rag, almost looks like a shellac, right? That's transparent. Can't even see it. So, that's a good way to find out, too.

And as far as a smell, brake fluid has its own smell too. It's kind of mild. There's nothing there. Reminds me of like a little bit like rubbing alcohol, I guess you'd go with that one, a little bit like a cleaner rubbing alcohol. And it's almost like olive oil when you put it on your hand. That's what it feels to me.

So let's do a little test here. We'll put some dirty fluid and let it sink into the tar for a second. We'll do a dab clean, and you're going to see that there is no change in the appearance on the tar. So now we've had it sitting here for a couple minutes, and it's has sunk into the asphalt. So let's see how it looks, if it looks on the ground.

So I pretty much wiped away and cleaned both the same amount. You can see the dirty fluid sunk in faster, and that's probably because the molecules are broken down in it. And the clean brake fluid puddled up here. Granted, there is a chip in the tar, but let's see what it looks like on the ground. It's going to be the same. And it will evaporate, too, because it does have ammonia smell to it. I'm not a chemical engineer, so I can't tell you the exact things inside brake fluid, but it will evaporate also. So there you have the dirty brake fluid and clean brake fluid.

Once again, hopefully you'll never see clean brake fluid on the ground, because that just means work had been done. Dirty brake fluid more than likely mean that you have a broken line or caliper leak, caliper seal, piston seal leak, and that needs attention ASAP.

Another quick way to look and see if it's brake fluid is to pop your hood open and check where your master cylinder is. See if your brake fluid is low. It's pretty much always located in the same spot. Most cars, it's going to be in front of the driver's seat, under the engine compartment. And see if your master... where the fluid level's at. So you can always write it on a piece of paper. Write the date that you checked it, where the level is at, and just put it your glove box. That way you have that reassurance if you ever think, "Wow, could this be? I don't remember what the level was." Be ahead of it. Make yourself a little calmer.

Let's talk power steering fluid. Now this is a gift from up above. If you've ever driven a manual steering car, it's not fun. This is power steering fluid that's been in a pump for thousands of miles. And here is new power steering fluid, and this is ATF fluid. And the reason I'm showing that is because a good portion of cars nowadays uses ATF for power steering fluid, not the hydraulic fluid.

So always check your manual, and it will tell you whether it takes power steering fluid or ATF. And that's how they'll lift it, ATF. And just add it to the reservoir. And power steering, if you do have a leak, you'll know it. You won't just see it on the ground and say, "I think I have a power steering leak." It's going to go quickly. It's a small reservoir, and it's under pressure, so when it goes low, you'll hear that dreaded noise. Y'all heard it once or twice, and that's what it is, it's power steering fluid is low.

The fluid is spinning in the reservoir, and it's echoing through that little reservoir body, and it's loud. The bad thing is once you hear that noise, you need to stop the car or get to a place that's going to repair it, or if you're going to repair it. Don't put it off. You can keep adding fluid if you need to put it off. But when you hear that noise, you're doing damage to the inside of the pump. So don't put it off for three days listening to the noise, because I can guarantee you, on top of a leak, you're also going to need a pump.

Let's talk coolant. So we have all different types of coolant up here. There's probably some that I'm missing, but this is what I have in the shop. So we're going to talk about the different colors in coolant, in ranges, and the cars they go in. Check your manual, always, to see what kind of coolant your car takes.

So these two right here, I'm going to start with. This is a Toyota Nissan. This can be Toyota Nissan, I've seen it in. And then it goes into more of a European car, like a BMW, Audi, and the same with this, BMW, Audi, Mercedes. Then we have DEX-COOL, which started out in GMs. And then we have a typical universal, which used to be big in the 70s, and now it should be more of a blonde color. They used to have it just a blonde. It's like vanilla and someone put a green tint back in it. I don't know why they did that, but this is the green.

So those are all the color ranges. The thing about coolant is, when it gets heated up and dirty, it doesn't really change color unless it's really been there for a long time. You could always do a little journal. And check your car after it has cooled down for several hours. Open your reservoir, note the color, keep that in your glove box. So if you see any of these colors by your car, you say, "Hey, my car is blue coolant. I just backed out and saw this vibrant green. No sweating it, it's not my car." So nice little maintenance journal in the glove box always give you assurance and comfort.

Last but not least I want to talk about is water. Water that comes out of your car would be caused from the AC. It comes out of the evaporator. So you'll see a little tube. If you ever lifted your car up and looked underneath, sometimes there's a rubber tube coming down, and it comes out of the evaporator for your AC condenser.

So when you run it, water comes out. Sometimes you're like, "What is that on the ground?" It's usually the evaporator from the AC. Sometimes if you run your defrost, the AC clicks on and off also, and you might see a little bit of water from that. It's usually has to be pretty humid outside. But if you see a puddle in the general area of the passenger front, it's more than likely, just take your little rag, and that is water. So for that, cheers.

So I could go over with you when you might see these fluids located on the ground if your car was leaking. I've seen a couple of videos do that. My problem with that is is that every car is different. I don't know what kind of car you drive. And for me to say generally brake fluid should be at the wheels. I can't say that because you have brake lines that go back and forth from the front and the back. So I don't want to talk about where you'll find it on the ground.

I find the best way would be do the white paper towel rag, and you can see, and you'll see it. Check your reservoir for a leak. You don't ever question it. You want to know, right? You want to know where it is. Same with antifreeze. I've seen cars with engines in the back, coolant tubes go into the front, because the radiator's in the front and the engine's in the back.

I can't tell you coolant should only be in the engine area, so let's just scratch it all. Let's go beyond that. I trust that you can do it, and I know you can do it. Check your manual and go from there for the color scheme. Get to know your car, pop the hood open, write a little journal of what color goes where so you know. Mark the side of the reservoirs, if you can, with a black marker. And then always keep just a little maintenance and knowhow, so that way you feel a little more comfort and assurance.

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