What would cause a 1995 corsica to leak massive amounts of antifreeze - causing a puddle under the front of the car everytime it is stopped?

Answer 1

First of all, make very sure you keep enough antifreeze in your resovior when driving, or you could do serious and potentially irrepairable damage to your engine.

Some things to check are

Your water pump could be leaking through the weep hole on the bottom side- this means the bearings are worn out, and you need to replace your water pump. No sweat if this is it, you can be back in buisness for about 40 bucks if you install it yourself.

Check all of your radiator hoses to see if they are cracked or split. Also check the clamps at the ends of the hoses to make sure those aren't leaking. Don't forget the two hoses up near the firewall that go to your heater core.

Your radiator has a small valve on the bottom to drain the antifreeze out, check to see if it somehow got paritally opened.

Your radiator could be cracked and leaking

Check your plastic resovoir to see if somehow it got cracked or is leaking

Your radiator cap could be loose or leaking (or missing)

You could have a blown head gasket (but if you aren't getting massive amounts of white smoke when it's running, I doubt this is it)

I guess you could have a cracked engine block, but this is very severe, and I doubt it would happen. (assuming you don't have a habit of taking your corsica to the drag strip) :)

If all else fails, put on some old clothes, and lay under your car with a flashlight and look for where it is dripping from. Then follow the wet back to the source of the problem. This is messy and uncomfortable, but unfortunately is sometimes the only option. If you have to do this, keep in mind that the antifreeze splashes around under your hood, so it can be very difficult to find the leak.