Was just wondering if someone can diagnose my problem and tell me if my radiator is cracked or not.

Anyways I was at the mall with my girl last night, after driving towards there and after finding a spot to park I realise there was a bit of smoke coming out of my hood so naturally I opened it and had a check. What I found was there was was a bit of coolant around the overflow/upper hose area, not much only a little bit. Anyways not wanting to ruin the night with car problem I left it and afterwards on my short trip home I drove it lightly but thing was there was no more smoke coming out so I didnt think anything of it.

This morning when I drove to school and afterwards when coming back from school a while before I paid careful attention and there was still nothing (as in smoke) coming out so I didnt think of anything.

Just before though I flipped the hood again and this time I found my overflow bottle is all empty!

So what do you guys think the problem is? My gauge doesnt show the car overheating or anything and if my radiator was cracked it should be pouring out with steam shouldnt it??

 

Sounds like the top tank has cracked. Very common!!!! You can get a new radiator for about $120 and you can install it yourself in just a few hours. Not hard to fix at all.

 

Top tank as in the part where my plastic is joined with the core?

I just want to pin point the problem before I do anything, nothing hard with replace a radiator I know

 

Yup that is the part, I bet if you look at the back of the radiator and maybe even on the tranny you will see white stains, this is from the fluid leaking out of the tank, then getting blowen, or vibrated off, when it dries off it turns white.

 

Wow pretty surprised that its already cracked with the car only having 28K miles