It takes a lot of different fluids to get your car or truck down the road every day, and when they start leaking out of you car, it can be hard to tell what the problem is.
Fortunately, the color of the leaking fluid can give you a good idea about what the issue is, and then you can move on to fixing it. If you’re experiencing this problem now, take a look below to see if any of these colors look familiar.
Yellowish-Green, Blue, Orange — These colors could point to a few different problems. First, check your radiator and see if you can see any of the fluids coming from it. If that’s not it, it could be your water pump going out or hopefully it’s just a cracked or leaking hose. That would be an easy fix, but if your car or truck has been overheating lately, it could be an engine-related problem.
Brown, Black — This one you might recognize because it’s probably oil. Now, a little oil leaking out isn’t a huge problem, but if it’s a decent amount of oil, then it could be an old or broken seal or gasket. Definitely something you’d want to get fixed.
Red — Especially a darker red, and this could be bad or really bad depending on what it is and the amount of damage. It could be your power-steering pump leaking, and that might not be so bad. A lot power steering fluids you can buy come with some chemicals in them that will help seal smaller cracks, so look into that first if there’s not a major amount of fluid leakage. That dark red fluid could also be transmission fluid, and you should take this in to have a mechanic take a look if you think this might be the problem. Hopefully it’s nothing serious, but if you’re driving an older car, it could be your transmission going out.
Clear — I saved the best for last! If you see some clear fluid underneath your car or truck, it is most likely normal condensation coming from the air conditioner. No problem.
