psypha

Ok so a I rear ended someone and ended up cracking the radiator. On the way home my car started overheated due to fluid leaking. It got bad to the point where it stalled and I couldn't start the car for like 2 mins. Luckily it happened right next to a gas station and I was able to put some water in and I was able to drive home.

So I replaced my radiator, filled it up and let the air bleed out by starting it up with the rad cap off and squeezing both rad tubes, upper and lower and having the heat on blast. Now I'm getting a bog of white smoke coming out the exhaust. This happened for like 2 mins. Also I'm not getting any heat. So I turned the car off and put the rad cap back on and went for a test drive. Car was running like ****. It was idling up and down and still getting a good amount of white smoke. After about 2 miles my temp gauge went up close to H. I'm hearing a whistling and purging sound. So I pulled over and popped the hood. The coolant reservoir was boiling and smoking. Also noticed that my rad fan wasn't turning on even though the temp was high enough for it to go on. But came on once I turned on my AC though. So now I let the car cool off and start driving again. It was really boggy and getting large amounts of white smoke now. I stopped by the closest gas station about a 1/4 mile away and the owner was able to help me out with a jug of water. It ended up taking about a gallon. WTF? I just filled the sucker up about 4 liters. I made it home safely and put in about 2 more liters of coolant.

After all this I've replaced the thermostat and rad cap and guess what its still doing it. Cars driving ok when in normal operating temp and getting a little white smoke. I revved the car up to 4k for about a min and it starts to overheat and coolant reservoir starts boiling again.

Do I have a bad water pump??? or blown head gasket???

The 2 tells I have for the blown gasket are white smoke from exhaust and coolant overflow boiling. My oil is not milky, looks like normal oil on both the oil cap and dip stick.

Don't know what it is at this point please HELP!!!

kyden

blown headgasket probably.

compression test?

MikeM

Unfortunately, it sounds like you may have a blown head gasket, warped head or block, or a crack in the head or block.

psypha

Smh. I haven't done a compression test. How much is it to replace the head gasket? A few hundred? If so I'm gonna try to do it myself and replace timing belt and water pump too.

cvcrcr99

If you are doing the work yourself, $150 in parts

If you pay a mechanic to do it, I would guess at least $600 total.

lostforawhile

Ran car overheated until it shut off? you are a dumbass!!

lostforawhile

if you were dumb enough to run it that hot until you made it shut off, please dont try and do the work your self!! but you did save the cost of a tow truck! busted radiator? I'll make it home!

nicknack25

Since you ran your car while it was overheated for a long period of time, i would say you have a warped head. You definitely gotta change the headgasket, so while you do that, check the head and block out. And about the idle jumping, you didn't bleed the coolant properly.

And for your fan not working, jump your fan switch clip with a paperclip with the key to the on position, the car doesn't have to be on just the key. And if the fan turns on, you might have a bad fan switch or a short in the wires. If the fan doesn't turn on, you have a bad relay, or fan motor.

lostforawhile

it's probably not running because most of the coolant is gone, the temp switch needs some coolant to function

psypha

I didn't mean I drove it until it stalled. Let me reiterate, I pulled over when the needle climbed 3/4 towards H. I waited a few mins and then tryed to start the car and it wouldn't but hen it did after like 2 mins, it stalled out. I'm mechanically inclined to do the work myself and confident I can do it right. I'm gonna take the head off and see if I've warped it in the very near future. Let you guys know what happened.

Thanks for the help and responses guys.

psypha

The fan isn't bad, it turns on when I hit the ac on.

Like lostforawhile said, the lower rad hose(thermostat and rad fan switch housing) isn't getting any fluid to read and actually turn on the fan.

The hoses aren't gettin any pressure whatsoever. I'm most certain I've gotta blown headgasket and worse, have a warped or cracked head. Maybe even block too. My neighbor is a mechanic for a Honda dealership. He's got a a hookup with a machine shop. He will gladly help me and take my head to the shop and check it out.

lostforawhile

you knew it had a cracked radiator and the temp was rising, yet you continued to drive it, this isn an air cooled volkswagon, what exactly did you THINK was going to happen? temp rising, I'll just keep driving, oil light on? just keep driving, strange banging and knocking sound from under the hood? nothing to worry about!! I'll just keep on driving!!! YES you deserve to be humiliated, and you need to have your man card revoked for driving an overheated car until you killed it, I could see a woman driving from the nail shop doing this, but you said you were mechanically inclined,