Rep Power: 0

Just noticed in the past few days that my 2000 Civic (315,000 kilometres) has been staining my driveway. The leak is coming from the exhaust pipe bracket before the pipe joins the muffler. It's the original exhaust pipe so there is likely a hole where the fluid is coming out of the exhaust.

I thought it was brake fluid at first, but it is not. It looks and smells like water. My coolant is due to be changed soon. The 'water' doesn't have the color difference i'd expect from antifreeze, and has no apparent hydrocarbon smell to it. I have not used water 'ever' in lieu of a proper coolant mix for my system.

It only appears to leak when the car is operating.

I checked the overflow reservoir. It was bone dry almost so I added some coolant. I'll continue to check this in the near future to see if it goes down.

I checked the radiator. There was coolant near the top.

It sounds like a head gasket issue, but I wasn't 100% sure because my radiator level was still good. (unless my filling of the overflow is a sign).

I'd rather it wasn't, since I know that is going to set me back quite a bit. If it is, i'm wondering how long I'll have before I'll have some kinda catastrophic problem. Is checking the overflow the only thing I can do until I get it fixed properly?

 
Rep Power: 312

Water is a normal byproduct of the catalytic reaction of your car. It's probably just leaking out of the hole before it comes out of the back of the exhaust. If you notice when you start any car and its on an incline it will shoot water out of the exhaust. Totally normal. Your pretty safe to just keep driving it, fix the hole in the exhaust though

It's a great great habit to check your coolant level weekly or every time you fill up the gas tank though!!! If the coolant level stays normal your pretty much assured your head gasket is Okay. Hope that helps and reassures you a bit!

 
Rep Power: 216

Word. Little bit of cool knowledge. The idea tailpipe end results of combustion are H2O and CO2.

 
Rep Power: 312

Haha yea it's good to know because everyone worries about it when they first see it and then learn something new about how a cat operates..