i will try to keep this short and sweet. i was driving home when i happend to look down at my gauges and saw that it was overheating like a mother so i slowed down and turned the car off then coasted into a driveway(lady was cool about it) i opened the hood and i could hea a slight hissing coming from the rad cap and when i looked down under the bumper there was a bit of coolant leaking from somewhere along the passenger side(never found source). i called up my buddies and they brought me some coolant and i put some more in it and the car ran no problem, no over heating at all on the way home. this entire fiasco i was driving normally not pushing it at all. anyone know what could have caused this? messed up thermostat? thanks for any help.

 

oh, i will add that there has been no leaking sense the incident.

 

did you check your radiator hose?

 

but if it where the hose wouldnt it be leaking still?

 

It could still have been leaking but it may be a slow leak and it doesn't really leak bad until the motor is under a heavy load. Try taking a look at your hoses while its running and check for leaks near the clamps...it may have corroded real bad on the inside of your hoses...

 

i will got on that tomorrow, thanks guys.

 

it dosent look like the lower hose is leaking. the is some coolant on the top side of the radiator(passenger side rad cap) though, where the plastic part is joind the the metal fins, dosent look like it is coming from the rad cap.

 

What year is it? It's common for aluminum radiators with plastic end tanks to separate (where the alum is crimped onto the plastic).

Hit up radiatorbarn.com for a nice cheap OEM replacement. Or be a baller and get a Fluidyne for 4x the cost.

Until then, carry a gallon of distilled water in your car. You're going to continue leaking coolant until you fix it, and normal 50/50 coolant is too expensive to waste.

If the radiator ISN'T leaking, you probably just overheated and boiled over, as this will also cause coolant to leak out. Causes of this? Air in the system, low on coolant, etc..

 

thats probably what i will do. thanks for the website.

 

i had a hole in my coolant reservoir, so it wont hurt to check that too

 

that what my buddy and i thought it was. havent gotten to get a good look at it though.

 

so i dont think my fans are coming on cause the engine bay seem s to get quite hot and they are never on. so i am going to replace the fan switch sensor thing that is in the radiator and see if that helps.

on another note radiators are expensive and i was contemplating getting some of the radiator stop leak to hold me over until i can get a new radiator. the rad isnt leaking that bad, or will it **** something up?

 

so i am going to be replacing my radiator, thermostat and fan switch tomorrow. would there be any interest in a DIY writeup?

 

I'm good, but I've done this before

 

so i am a dumbass....haha. i got everything replaced and when i took it around the block it was great worked like a charm. but as soon as i got on it the tem started going way up by the time i got back it was 3/4 to "max" and the was smoke pouring out of the car from cooling getting on the engine. i forgot to put the clamp on the thermostat housing so it shot coolant everywhere.

now to the point. how much coolant should i put in/ how will i know? how to get the air out? put said amount of coolant in and run it w/o the rad cam and let any air bubble out? thanks.


oh and fans still not kicking on(booo) so a relay maybe? i already replaced the switch sensor thing in the radiator. thanks for any help.