I am stumped. 2 months back I changed out the water pump and hoses because I noticed I leak coming from the pump (no overheating). The leak continues to stump me as sometimes it's from the upper hose, sometimes the lower hose once in a blue moon the outlet hose will leak. Rad was replaced about 2.5 years ago. Sometimes it happens daily on first drive only other times the leak is not daily. When it leaks from the upper sometimes it is a bad leak other times it is a few drops. When the lower leaks usually it is a few drops. I am stumped on this and the leaks have never caused overheating. Could it be the t-stat going out?

01 ram 1500 3.9 v6

Cap!

Replaced.

Forgot to mention that

Dodge replace!

Shop can pressure test is and force the coolant out so it's easier to find maybe!

I would love to replace it can't afford to right now. Can't afford the pressure test either

You can usually rent a pressure tester from your local parts store. If you sweet talk the guy at the counter he may even let you use it for free in the parking lot for a few minutes.

Thermostat housing and heater hose pipe going into waterpump had a habit of rusting thru on those. Should be able to tell which is leaking, if it's one of those.

radiator cap is rated too high. Had one on a jeep one time kept blowin the top out of the radiator. Had a 25lb cap. went to 8lb never did it again.

Have you tried tightening the hose clamps? The inherent fault with worm gear style house clamps is that as the hoses get older and shrink the clamping force is loosened unless the clamp is manually tightened.

This can cause a leak that is worse when the engine is cold and gets better as the hose expand slightly as it heats up.

If it has the spring steel style clamps that you have to squeeze with a pair of pliers they tend to loose their clamping force as they age and I usually replace them with the worm gear style.

The spring steel style does tend to imprint into the hose to a point that a worm gear one cant clamp it good enough to seal. In that case you would need to change the hose too.

Another leak point on those motors with higher mileage is the timing cover gasket like to leak and can sometimes appear to be the pump leaking.

We have a local guy that still repairs radiators and every time you go pick your radiator up he tells you to not put the stock pressure cap on but to go get a 6 or 8 pound cap. I guess thats his way to try to ensure his repair doesnt leak.

Throw away the spring clips and put decent hose clamps on them.

Thanks for the good info. I have a 16 lb cap on it I'll go smaller on it.
The hose clamps were replaced with worm style when I replaced the hoses. I've tightened them several times.
Truck has just under 80k

Well you have covered all the bases.

That's why I'm stumped

Make sure the places the hoses are clamped to are clean and not cracked and the hoses are on all the way. Also make sure the hose clamps are not too close to the end of the hoses. Sometimes the parts stores have a plastic loop through the hose close to the end that leave a pin hole. The clamps are supposed to be further back than those holes.

thanks I will double check the clamp locations.