I've got a 90 Lumina 3.1L. After a year of no problems, the battery died suddenly. I didn't think too much of it--I just replaced it. After a couple days, the new battery died on the freeway. At this point, I noticed a fairly severe coolant leak. So I'm wondering: is there something that could be leaking coolant and causing a rapid battery drain? Or could these things be unrelated?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Serp belt slipping?

Could that be it? I had the belt replaced not too long ago...

Where did you see the leak? Did you check the alternator output when the battery went bad? If it quit while driving, and the battery was dead, the charging system isn't working.

A coolant leak wetting the belt could let the alternator slip, but you'd be having trouble with the power steering, A/C too.

According to the guy at the store, if it was the alternator that was bad, the battery would have charged back up. But it wouldn't. Also, there didn't seem to be any problems with steering or driveability at all.

I couldn't pin down the location of the leak exactly, but it seemed to be coming from the area beneath the radiator hose.

(Thanks for your help, by the way)