I had the coolant flushed at the local dealer on Wednesday and all seemed fine through Thursday. I go out this morning to leave on a work trip and suddenly the truck has a leak from the left side of the radiator (drain I guess) and it is dripping at a rate of two drips per second. I have no time to deal with it so a friend went over and got it to at least stop dripping. My question is can I drive it to the dealer? It is only three miles and it lost less than a gallon but I'm guessing that once it pressurizes it is going to blow the rest out at a rapid rate. The drive to the dealer gets the temp up roughly to the bottom of the normal range on the indicator. What should I do? Thanks.

 

Drive it back and have the drain valve inspected. If they are not tightend good enough they will leak.

 

Will do. Thanks.

 

I got caught out with that STOOOOPID design of a bung.

I'll post up the pics I have of it and perhaps you can see how this all goes together. I'm not suggesting you go fix the dealers mess but at least you'll have an understanding on what they are talking about...

Mine was doing nothing more than spinning in the rad without tightning up (I did my own flush)


disclaimer: Mine is an early 2004. I don't know if they changed the design for 2006.

 

You are never supposed to loosen them all the way. If you only loosen them a couple of turns you will have no issues tightening them back up. I learned this the first time I drained the radiator.....LOL The hard way of coarse.

 

After doing the waterpump mine leaked. It would leak if screwed in all the way, playing with it I found a spot part way out where it doesn't leak. Been good for three years now.

 

Ha. Thanks guys. That is actually why I didn't attack this on my own. I generally don't let the dealer touch my vehicles but I'd figured whoever worked on it had at least done one Cummins Ram in the past. I could have screwed this up on my own and saved the $160.

 

So is it a new gasket it needs? What is going to make it so this doesn't happen again? Like I said it held for two days and then one morning I come out to a spontaneous mess in the driveway.

 

I had trouble getting mine sealed back up too. I fiddled with it and finally got it to stop seeping. Now, I just pop the lower hose and have a five gallon bucket ready! Still goes everywhere but when I put it back together, no leakage!

 

had the coolant system serviced on my 2005 model dodge diesel this fall.

the local mech i use, would not open the radiator drain, he said they were cheap and many would not seal back.

so he took off the lower radiator hose, drained system and reattched the lower hose.

all when fine, no problems and no leaks.