The Fusion has 157,000 miles on it. It has been exemplary in it's service, but the miles...the miles. They are adding up and now is the moment that anything except total engine failure can happen. And it always, always, always happens when it is BUTT ASS COLD outside. Cue the massive coolant leak that popped up today. I made it home from Chesterfield with the heat going in and out, a sure sign that there wasn't enough coolant to do the job. I pulled the old jalopy into the garage and figured out that it wasn't major, but a major pain in the butt.
It's called a Water Outlet. Pretty simple, but it plays a big roll in passing coolant between the head, the radiator, and the heater core. Apparently it's a common failure in the 2.5 liter. I was so worried that the freeze plug you see above that nice little clean coolant passage was the culprit. Nope. But it was a bear to get everything out of the way to remove this thing. I pinched my right index finger with needle nose pliers in the process. Grrrrr.
This is the dumpy little creature. Not much to it. Plastic, with a giant red O-ring to seal it to the head.
And that O-ring is what fails. You can see the distortion. This part cost $35 and the coolant was $30. The price of my time and my pinched finger cannot be calculated, however.
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