Clear odorless fluid
 

There is a puddle of clear odorless fluid that has leaked from somewhere near the front a little towards the passenger side. I don't know what it could be as I don't know of any fluid lines that carry a clear odorless fluid near the front of the engine near the passenger side.

Just a shot, but windshield washer fluid? Coolant would feel slippery.

Don't have windshield washer fluid, but I should mention that the viscosity of the fluid is similar to mineral oil. If that helps.

Mineral oil is in the original r12 A/C system. Although most of the ac stuff is on the driver side. I don't think any of it is on the passenger side, except of course the radiator looking thing (I always forget if it's the condensor or evaporator) in front of the radiator.

My system was converted years ago to r134a. I've cleaned everything off and tried to find a leak but can't see anything

If it's closer to the firewall then just condensation from the ac dripping off. The only other thing near the passenger side at the front is the air pump, which should only run for a minute on startup. Outta ideas!

I'll just contiue to watch for source of leak

Fluid turned out to be coolant. Color was actually a very faint yellow. Anyways, I still can't see where it's coming from. I dumped in some bars stop leak pellets. So far no more leaking, but it

Why would you put stop leak in when you don't have any idea where its coming from? Future readers please do not follow his decided path. Find the leak and replace or tighten the hose...its not that hard.
You are stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. When you end up overheating or have a failing water pump in the future you will pay for it then.

I agree, I usually don't do that, but I can not find the leak and also, I don't even know if it was a hose or not because there are only 3 or 4 hoses at the front of the engine that carry water and every single one of them was dry. So was the radiator and so was the water pump and the belt tensioner. The only fluid I saw was either in a puddle on the ground or dripping off the bottom portion of my bumper. I have actually used the bars stop leak in the past and I usually like to keep it circulating in my system and it keeps all the seals very pliable and keeps everything lubed up and corrosion free. The leak has stopped hough since adding the bars to the system so maybe it was a small hole somewhere. Eventually it will have to show itself again, but probably no time soon.

I had the same problem on my '95 E320 cab- I thought it was power steering fluid.
Turns out it was coming from the weep hole in the water pump which drains via a drain tube onto the AC compressor and from there onto the floor.
Installed a new water pump and problem solved !

for future reference you do NOT want to mess with stop-leak pellets (akin to snake oil) and especially if you have not diagnosed the problem. hopefully you will be ok.

Playboy

I don't fault you for using BarsLeaks. I am using it to keep my head gasket from leaking on my E 300 D, but please, not the old pellets. They only half disperse and the useless half just settles out in your rad or block. BarsLeaks has a new Radiator Sealant that is dispersed in a bottle and can be poured right in. They have a bunch of sealants but the Green lable is the old ground up root in a updated form.

Oh God!


Please please please flush that stuff out of your system now! That stuff is almost impossible to get out of your system and will take many, many flushes to remove it, and will probably keep coming back for years to come. In the long run, that stuff is just plain evil. Unless you are using it to stave off a head gasket replacement, and you're driving an old American boat that has nothing like a monovalve, you really ought to stay away from it. It will slowly clog up your cooling system and gradually reduce its heat transfer capabilities as time goes by.

Never use a stop leak, that stuff is horrid!

If its leaking on the passenger side like that there's a chance that your coolant expansion tank has a crack and is seeping, or the radiator cap is weak and the system is discharging some coolant out the overflow tube when you shut the car off hot.

Don't know much about the 190, but isn't there a coolant pump that is supposed to circulate the coolant after engine shut down. If the 190 has one of those, I'd check there, perhaps a hose is brittle and releases minute or even more coolant at a crack.
Again, not sure if the 190 has that pump!

Nope, not on the 190e. There's an auxillary pump but it only runs with the heater on to keep the heat working at idle as far as I know.

You can get UV dye that you can put into your coolant to trace a leak.

I used the Bar's stop leak before without incident and I like to keep it circulating in my system to keep everything lubed. Yes, it stays in the system forever and I had to flush my engine like 3 times to get it all out. Anyways, I was able to identify the leak. It was the bypass hose going from the water pump to the cylinder block! @#$*ing Mercedes! That hose is maybe 2-3 inches long and the gap between the clynder block and water pump is maybe is thick as 2 nickels! The entire water pump, sterrping pump, belt, and maybe belt tensioner must be removed to get to it. I bought a grinder the other day because I planned on grinding down a little bit of the cylinder block side, but the grinder would not fit. I then started sawing at it with a small hacksaw, but I was not able to make much progress. After analyzing the situation a bit more because I refuse to take everything apart to replace a small hose, especially since that may cause me to open up a can of worms in regards to my belt tensioner and water pump, I decided to cut 1/4 inch of the rubber hose I had then I lightly greased the edges of bothe sides. I was able to put it in between the small opening at a 90* angle and slowly work it around the cylinder block side. Then I slid it back as far as it would go towards the cylinder block and I pushed the remaining part down and then pulled it forward to cover the water pump side. Hose replaced. Take that, MB engineers! Problem has been solved.

be careful of bars,I found it only effective in american cars and trucks.It seems japanese and german cars,have smaller core row sizes.It seems everytime I have used it,my radiator turns into concrete.I use aluma seal in stead.Its really fine power,passes thru are rows easy,and seals leaks.I use it every anti freeze cleansing,as a precaution

Heil mein Fuhrer,
damn Mercedes engineers, you showed them!!!!

Great, you fixed it and it hopefully will hold up.

Yep, sometimes they engineer in such way that the stuff has to be put together in a sequence.
On the other hand, as these things get more and more complex, it is hard to engineer something that is also easy to repair, besides, a Mercedes never breaks anyway, yeah right!

Thanks for the tip. I've seen stuff like that with the aluminum particles. I actually ran something like that in my engine a while back. It was a headgasket block seal type of thing. I did it as a preventative action just in case. Engine is at 351,000 miles. Despite its few repairs here and there, its still going strong. One thing I am proud to say is that I opened up my valve cover and looked at the cooling system insides and everything is extremely clean. No gunk on my valve cover, and not one trace of rust in the cooling system