Name That Stain!
Okay, given that I am a new homeowner and everything and as about as naive as most ditzy girls who don't know a their way around the if-it's-broke-you-fix-it-chump lifestyle that comes with it would be, I was wondering if anyone has the slightest clue what's going on in the photo above.
That's my driveway directly in front of my front door, and at first glance it appears to be that my Taurus is leaking. But it's not. At least I don't believe so. I park in that position every day, so what would be leaking out of my car right in front of my driver's side rear tire? Let's also keep in mind that I know next to nothing about the automotive underbelly as well. I should also mention that when Joe parks his Taurus (yes, we have his-n-her matching Tauruses which is too disgustingly sweet for words, I know) in the exact same spot the stain remains. In fact the stain never goes away, ever. I took this picture in the 98 degree heat of the late afternoon without it having rained in over a week. In other words it never dries. Ever.
Although it appears watery in essence, there's a bit of viscous greenish substance to it in places. I can't help but wonder if it's coming from that crack in the driveway instead of my car. At one point Joe suspected that it was sewage and imagined that maybe the stain got larger whenever we flushed the toilet. But while Joe ran inside to flush one of the toilets while I crouched over the stain I didn't really notice it leaking or spreading very much, and if it did it was so nominal that I may have even imagined it. Plus it has no odor that I can detect at all. And I'm too squicked out to touch it.
Anyway, if anyone has ever seen anything like this before please advise. I don't know whether I need to call a mechanic or a plumber, or quietly lock myself in the closet and bash my brains in because the new house I just bought is shoddy goods.
I would invite S. over to check it out but knowing her she'll just keep repeating that line from the movie Dune where Brad Dourif keep saying that bit about "... the lips contain the stain, the stain serves as a warning..." which she always does when she is confronted with any ominous unexplainable stain and that serves me no purpose whatsoever other than make me laff my ass off.
posted by Melissa at 3:15 PM
7 Comments:
I know people's cars leak when the AC is ran for a long time but I remember that the AC on your car doesn't work.
Hey, the DEVO sticker I gave you years ago made the picture!
Gotta represent!
"viscous greenish substance"
Mel, that sounds a lot like antifreeze.
Yeah Mag, that's the first thing I thought too. Only thing is that it doesn't look like anything is leaking out of my car at all. And wouldn't antifreeze leak from under the engine? I mean I really don't know, because I literally know that little about cars.
Today along the crack in the driveway the stain was bright metallic silver instead of green. Damn if I know what it is.
Well, antifreeze would leak from the radiator, but depending on how your car is put together, it might not drip off the car until it reached a point where gravity would pull it down. So, it could snake along the top of a wire or the exhaust system before it dripped on the ground.
Metallic silver! Whoa. Are you guys sitting on top of an old landfill? I used to live in a house that had a yard that would spontaneously disgorge tampon applicators into my flower beds.......
Maybe a water main is leaking under your driveway? the green could be algae and the silver....uh, I dunno.
I suppose it could still be leaking from the car. I see no drips, and my levels have been pretty normal. Plus when I park on the other side of the stain it doesn't drip over there, either. It's just weird all over.
Could the silver be mercury, I wonder?
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