I had a small leak in my cooling system, originally thought it was a transmission leak but on further inspection my transmission fluid levels were not dropping.

The odd part is that my reservoir levels are not dropping at all. However my radiator levels are dropping, I was down quite a bit the other day, car came close to overheating, i was about 2 liters low on fluid in the radiator. The reservoir was fine.

I have some leaks on the passenger side near between the tire and transmission box. It's right below the CV joint, hence why i originally thought it was a transmission leak. I do not see any fluid come out when idling in the engine compartment, so i am not sure if it is the cooling elbow issue or maybe more of a water pump issue. If I let the car sit it seems to lose more fluid than when i run it.

I also occasionally hear the water gurgling/flowing by the passenger side glovebox, maybe a heater core leak?

any tips on what i may want to look for before i head off to a dealer to get it fixed. I have a 2000 mile move ahead of me from TX to CA in 3 weeks and I don't want to be driving through the desert with a coolant leak

 

update: No leaks in any hosing, flushed the cooling system, the top cooling elbow doesn't seem to be leaking so I am thinking it must be the lower cooling elbow.

Don't see any water leaking from the water pump or gasket around it. I ordered the aluminum cooling elbow along with GM seals, so I will see how that goes.

 

If you can get to a parts store and borrow a radiator pressure tester, you should be able to hook it up to the radiator with the car off, pump it up, listen and look for leaks. It sounds like chances are high that it's a coolant elbow that has failed.

 

Get it fixed asap! or at least checked out.
Happened to me after noticing I was leaking Just filled the res' and everything seamed ok turns out the fans stopped blowing and radiator was busted the heads blew coulda been a $300 job and now its a $1200

 

These vehicles are notorious for coolant elbow leaks!

They tend to either disintigrate/crack over time...
They also will leak/crack right at the 90 degree edge of the elbow! But you wont physically see it there til you have removed it.

keep us posted/updated on your progress!

 

thanks for the advice. Turns out it was a cooling elbow problem, the lower one had a leak, after taking everything apart there was a nice orange/yellow dried streak of old dexcool below it dried onto the engine. The elbow was cracked on the 90 degree edge, after taking each out the tended to break on the engine side, so i had to be careful to fish all the pieces out.

I replaced with the Dorman aluminum cooling elbows, swapped their gasket (feel more pliable and smoother) with the GM part (felt rougher and more rigid). I added some rtv red silicone on the seals, popped everything back in, aligning things was a bit hard but a flashlight and extendible mirror helps.

No leaks so far, been using the car for 3 days in 100 degree TX weather. Car hangs around it's normal 188-194 temp. Though I am not sure how to test the radiatorfans don't they only come on above 212?