Ok, here's the story. Today I went to change the oil on my son's 95 850 Turbo. Car has 195K and runs like a top. Anyway, I couldn't find my ramps, so I jacked the car up and put it on jackstands. As soon as I crawled under it, I saw coolant dripping out from the seam at the bottom where the oil cooler meets the radiator (Under the oil cooler line on the right side of the car) The drips were about one evey three seconds, and I lost about a cup of coolant until it eventualy stopped. I'm thinking "great, new radiator here I come"

Now for the weird part.After finishing the oil changeI took the car off the jack stands and started it up and no leaks or drips (oil or coolant) I looked at the coolant reservoir and it looked fine. I put a jug of coolant in the trunk just in case, and then drove it into town and back (about a 30 mile round trip) When I stopped in town, I checked the radiator out and no leaks or coolant loss. I drove it home and same thing, no drips, no coolant loss. Heater works fine too.

I put it back up on jack stands and as soon as I did, it started dripping slowly from the same spot. As soon as I put in back on the ground, no drips. I did this about 3 thimes to confirm that it only drips coolant when it is on jack stands.

WTF!!! Any ideas? Right now I am just going to keep my eye on it.

Glenn

 

Glenn

My guess is body flex is working apart the seam on the radiator.

Having replaced my radiator in my 96 855, mine failed as the seam was leaking above the same side upper turbo oil line.

I usually always do my oil changes with the car on Jack stands. I have a tendancy to raise one side higher than the other to insure oil drainage out of the pan. When I settle the car on the jack stands, I do see the front of the settle and watch some slight flex.

Since it leaks while up on stands, I assume the stands are placed aft of the front wheels, the nose of the car will settle/flex a bit. You could easily be getting flex on the radiator mount that pulls the car apart from side to side or ? which places some stress on the seam between the radiator head and aluminum center section.

I found out that there is a large o ring that seals the two heads together and this is held together by tabs that are bent down from the center aluminum section to the metal head.
Now in my opinion that is going to fail, it is just a matter of time.

I wonder I maybe I should stop using jack stands when I change my oil and go back to the ramps!!! ummm!!

Ray

 

I would say replace it when you can. If it is leaking like that it will start leaking more soon.