Yellow-brown fluid leaking from center rear?

[jbooth]

I charged the car to 100% last night in anticipation of a 2.5 hour road trip the wife was taking today. On departure, I found a yellow-brown fluid leak. My best guess is it is from the rear of the battery compartment, but could be +- 6 inches from there depending on where exactly the car was parked last night.

The fluid is yellow-brown and oily to the touch. It doesn't have a strong smell, but vaguely reminds me of a light oil like for a bicycle chain, but clearly isn't 100% oil because it had to have been evaporating or there would have been more left, based on the pattern on the containment mat. I didn't taste it. It is not a ton of fluid left this morning, a tablespoon or two I'd guess at the point I found it, although I don't know how much originally leaked and may have evaporated as it did originally cover a larger area based on where fluid is right now. It did have a "splatter" pattern with the main body of that about 6" across, and then another maybe square foot of "and then it ran this way".

Thoughts on what I'm looking at? I know it isn't AC condensate and we always park rear-in anyway (guarantees the hatch does not clip the garage door and because "just in case..." to tow it out).

My preferred ford dealer is an hour's drive away. The local one... it has been one bad experience after another so I'd really prefer to drive it to the better dealer.

PS: She took the gas car.

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[ReverendPete]

Could possibly be the gear oil from the electric motor. Check this recent thread (and the thread linked to in the first couple posts. https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/electric-drive-oil-pump.30091/)

 

[Mach-Lee]

Battery and motor coolant is a yellow/green antifreeze. Rear motor oil is red ATF.

A/C condensate can drip off the back corners of the battery (in front of the rear wheels) if you are parked on an incline nose up.

If it rained or the car got wet, the are commonly puddles under it after parking from drips.

 

[jbooth]

We car-washed it but that was back on Sunday and we spent 2 hours out in the evening sun before we came back home, so it was dry when we pulled in. There was of course some water hiding in the hatch, but not much. We park Illinois-flat (the garage is so flat that snow melt Goes! Random! Places! -- it is very annoying and that's why we have containment mats under the cars now).

Also, if it was just water it shouldn't be that oily. When I cleaned it off the mat so that I can identify if it drips more, that spot got a nice oil-on-water sheen going on the moment I poured some water on it.

It is possible that it is very dirty rear red atf, but the color didn't have a hint of red, so I don't think so.

I saw the oil pump thread while searching and pulled codes with car scanner, but the only thing it had were driver eye sensor faults, presumably because my wife had the wheel still turned from parking and the sensors were covered.

The dealer suggested I could check the coolant and oil, but I'm not sure I'm up for ripping the whole frunk apart to do that. Next time I buy a EV, it is *not* going to have all those coolant/12v battery/etc parts hidden and difficult to access.

 

[CYBER-O]

The fluid should be yellowish clear. Might be a UTI. Try a round of penicillin...

 

[SWO]

If the fluid is yellowish and evaporating, it could be coolant. If you want to check you could pull the frunk covers off and check the reservoir level? As has already been mentioned, these cars have a lot of panels/covers which can also trap water and then drain it later.

 

[jbooth]

So I did get the frunk ripped apart. Battery coolant looks fine, not at max, but pretty close to it. Motor electronics coolant is also fine, although it is very close to min. Of course since those are so difficult to check, it isn't like I have any idea what they were before, or when it came back from the 10k mile service a year-plus ago.

I'm tempted to leave the panels off but I'm worried the passenger side panel off is going to mean a poor seal on the nose and bugs/rain/gross working their way in, so I guess I'll bang them back on. Bleh.

 

[Mach-Lee]

I'm tempted to leave the panels off but I'm worried the passenger side panel off is going to mean a poor seal on the nose and bugs/rain/gross working their way in, so I guess I'll bang them back on. Bleh.

I’ve left mine off for months with no issues.

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