I recently replaced my coolant in my car and I noticed the smell of antifreeze and occassionally what looks like a little steam coming from the hood on the right hand side when I'm stopped at a light ...i checked all my hoses and I didnt notice a leak however when i popped the hood I noticed that my battery was a little wet and behind one of the pullys was a little wet too. The smell of coolant is very noticable but my car isnt overheating or anything..any suggestions on what the problem may be? HELP PLEASE!!!!

 

If coolant is dripping from behind a pulley it's possible the bearing in the water pump is going out and has caused the seal to begin leaking. The easiest way to pinpoint and verify the origin of the leak would be to pressurize the cooling system. A tester can be borrowed from a local parts store like Autozone or O'Reilly. Wipe up all old coolant in the engine bay, pressurize the cooling system then look for the leak and listen for the burbling sound of air/water escaping. If it does turn out that the leak is behind the pulley on the water pump it will need to be replaced.

 

I would guess water pump too. I know it's a relatively common problem in the 06-07 Monte V6's, not sure if they use the same water pump on the 5.3.

As for your battery being wet, if it's coolant, my guess would be that it's dripping off the water pump and coolant is being flung all over by the serpentine belt. The other thing it could be is battery acid (less likely) but I had a battery in my Monte that was leaking battery acid and it ruined by tray, had to replace it and repaint in there.

 

X3 On the water pump issue. When my pump went out it made no noise but the seal went. It got on the belt and ended up all over the underside of the hood and radiator and basically anywhere possible.

 

Agreed water pump

 

Thank you everyone for the info...I will look into it asap