6G Celicas Forums

Need some help as I'm not very mechanically inclined and would like to avoid mechanic costs. My celica died on my as soon as I got home. As I made a turn the battery and oil light came as the car died. Id say it's about a 15 minute drive. Checked oil levels and they were good. Temperature needle was good also. There seemed to be some steam coming from the power steering reservoir area from which I had a problem previously

About 2 weeks ago it started spraying water around the power steering reservoir area, couldn't really pinpoint the location as it was dark. I filled it with water and it ran fine until today.

If anyone know what could be the problem and how easy/hard it may be to fix pleas help lol thanks for the read. And here's a picture of the hose area where I think the original leak came from

Will it crank back up?

Not immediately after about 5-10 minutes it will..

Is the check engine light staying on?

If water is leaking on the passenger side of the block it could be at the thermostat housing, but I'm speaking as if it were a GT. I'm not familiar with the ST. Or could be the water pump, but if it's not overheating I doubt that's the case.

If it's cranking back up that rules out battery and/or alternator. Does the ST have a tensioner pulley for the serpentine belts? My old Acura died on me once going down the road and I could smell something like rubber burning and saw a little smoke rise when I popped the hood. It turned out to be the bearing in the tensioner pulley had gave out and seized up.

What kind of problem did you have with the power steering?

Check engine light does not come on. It used to screech from one of the belts a few weeks ago but hadn't been doing it anymore lately. The area where the smoke comes from is fairlyclose to the belts. That gives me a starting point, would that cause a water leaks?

The power steering leaks very slowly, I fill it like once every few months

If the smoke appears to be coming from that side of the engine I would definitely pay attention to the belts. Trying cranking it up again and let it run for the 15-20 minutes you said it took to die, and see if it does it again. Keep the hood up and look, listen, and smell for anything unusual. Just keep an eye on the temp gauge every couple of minutes just to be safe.

I don't know of any components that would leak water on that side besides the water pump and A/C lines. The A/C lines will sweat at times but are hard pipes, not rubber. Not sure how water is getting on the power steering resevoir. Weird

I dont think a belt issue would cause a water leak. How bad is the leak? And can you smell anything when it does leak? Antifreeze has a distinct smell.

Post a few more pics of the engine bay if you can.

Ok I will try that. Sometimes it's just a slight leak under the car, but it gets bad when water just starts spraying from what looks to be coming from under the intake manifold, by the power steering reservoir. I can't really see cause if sprays out a lot of water. I currently don't have coolant in it as I was wanting to fix the leak first. I'll fill it with coolant instead of water. Thanks for your help, I'll let post more pics tomorrow and see how it goes

Yeah some pics might help me help you. If it looks like the leak is behind the manifold, it could be the heater hose. On my GT, the top radiator hose runs to the transmission side of the motor to the outlet, and then the 2 heater hoses run from that outlet to the firewall, behind and kind of under the intake manifold. If you had nothing but water in the radiator that's why you can't smell it. Lol but I don't blame you if it's got a spewing leak.

you can play the guessing game until you turn blue in the face. unless you take it to someone that knows something about cars, you are not going to get very far here.

Alright I tried the process you said and for sure it's coming from the water pump. I'd rather not mess with that myself so I'm going to pay someone to fix it. Thanks for your help, but wasn't as easy a fix as I hoped it'd be

While you're in there you may as well do the timing belt as well, if its anywhere near needing a change.
It'll save you doing/ paying for practically the same job twice.

^ I second that. It'll save you money later to go ahead to change the timing belt and tensioner while they're there.

Happy to help.Glad you were able to find the leak, stinks that it's the water pump though!

Just wanted to say thanks again for the help. Finally had time and cash to get the belt and pump changed and is now running good.

Glad to help you get back on the road