there is a coolant elak somewhere, i brought it into a mechanic to have it fixed but he couldnt find it, here is what i know so far, its on the passenger sid eof the engine and it'* getting onto the belts, there is coolant everywhere but there seems to be an abundance of it behind and below the alternator at 2 hoses i assume are coolant hoses, i was planning on engine briting the whole area to clean it off, then running the car and see if i can locate any fresh coolant coming out, does this sound like an idea or should i just bring it to another mechanic?

water pump??

Your plan will work for starters. You should be able to just spray it off with normal water, let it dry, run it and see where the coolant is coming from

And, before someone else says it, post pics so we can help even better...

Coolant bypass fitting cracked under the alternator?

unfortunately i dont have a digital camera to take pictures, but i will try to describe it as best i can, the area that i tihnk is leaking because it seems to be the most saturated in coolant, comes out of the engine directly under the alternator, goes up and back diagonally and then connects to a hose at a 90 degree angle, which seems to lead behind the wheel well the other hose, which doesnt look as bad but i havent ruled out, is about 2-3 inches below the first one i decribed and i dont tihnk that one is connected with an elbow joint

Yup. Bypas fitting....

would i be able to replace it myself without removing the belts? my mechanic is replacing the belt for free cuz i he put them in a week ago and said there wasnt a coolant leak but obviously there was and the new belts are already damaged

You'll need to get the alternator out of the way, which involves removing the belt.

ill just have my mechanic do it when he replaces the belts then

Perhaps, the 96 is different, but I did not have to remove the alternator to replace the bypass fitting. (Although the leaking coolant did eat my belt too )