So, I'm driving to work this morning and there's this awful smell of something burning from under my car. I get to work, look under my car and it's green fluid (radiator fluid?) leaking onto the header leaving a white residue on the header. There's like a 1" tall pile of this crap on the header now. It's green fluid. What is that from? Take it to the dealership or what? Damn, this crap smells bad and I don't want to cause any (further) damage to the car.

 

is it leaking from the cap?

 

Yeah it's radiator fluid.

1)One of your hose clamps is loose
2)There is a crack in one on the hoses
3)The hose that connects to the top of the radiator was tightened to much and cracked the plastic outlet nipple
4)You blew a head gasket and its leaking from the head
5)Your cap is not sealing properly
6)etc......

If you can find the source of the leak it should tell you what happened.

 

Its just rad fluid. Monitor your fluid level and get it to a dealer if you don't feel comfortable diagnosting it yourself. Also, if its dripping off your car when your parked don't let it pool up, animals will drink it and die.

 

Thanks Clayton. I checked the headgasket and briefly looked over the cap and hoses and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I'll check again shortly.

 

The fluid is ment to stain, so that a person is able to find the leak easier (what mechanic told me anyway). After everything is said and done, don't forget to clean out your engine bay. If you don't it will continue to smell for a long time.