I was on my way to school, its like a 30 minutes commute. When I got to a light about a mile from school, I noticed smoke coming from the engine. So I got to school and the back-up coolant tank is basically empty. The temperature gauge was fine. The Water light did NOT come on. But there was coolant all over the engine bay.

So I went to class, come back with water and fill up the back-up tank and go home. Same thing when I got home, no water light, temperature gauge was fine, coolant all over the engine bay. Oh, I checked my parking spot at school and there was no coolant on the ground.

So whats the deal? Where could coolant be leaking from? Could it be the cap? It is on correctly, but maybe its faulty? Anyone have any info, please let me know...thanks


[Modified by integra7, 11:54 PM 9/5/2001]

 

you have a coolant leak, either at the top of the radiator of a coolant hose is cracked........wipe all the coolant off the the motor and engine bay, then start your car......keep the hood open and turn on the car.......once pressure starts building up, and the car gets hot, coolant will start spraying and/or bubbling up and you can pinpoint the leak........you should do this after the car is already warm or hot so you don't have to wait so long for the motor to warm up
this happened to me twice......this first time the hose that goes from the TB too the front of the head cracked.......this last time, the cheap plastic part of the radiator cracked

 

What GTE said...had this happen to my G2 `RS a little over 100k miles...hole in the top plastic piece of my radiator. Mine wasn't high pressure, so I actually had to drive highway speeds for it to spray, otherwise coolant pressure wouldn't get high enough.
The fact that you didn't get an overheat indicator just means you didn't quite get hot enough yet for it to go. But have the radiator checked, and if you can't find anything, do a check of the head gasket too.

 

a safer way to do this is to go to pep boys and spend 40 bucks on a coolant pressure tester.

there should be an attachment to hook it up to your radiator, pump it up to about 10psi and see where it is leaking from.

 

Hey guys, thanks for your help. Advice came in handy. I found a crack in the plastic at the top of the radiator. So i had to go spend $370 of which i did not want to and get a new radiator. takes like 20 minutes to install. thanks again

 

Damn..$370??

How much is a Fluidyne?

 

Paid 270 installed for a rebuilt radiator for me. Didn't know about the fluidyne plus I didn't have the time to wait for it to come in the mail or want to spend the extra money. I dunno why car companies are cheaping out and making part of their radiator out of plastic! I guess around 200k I'll need another radiator...

 

wow 370? isn't that alot for a rebuilt radiator?? can't you almost get a fluyidine for that much?? i gotta new aluminum radiator recently...and it cost me only $112

 

Go to http://www.radiator.com

Next day delivery of brand new radiator $188 shipping included. Also, I got my brand new radiator from a local shop for $150.

$370 is way too much!

Trench
Ephesians 2:14-18

 

well, $370 is for a NEW factory radiator. its pretty expensive,. but other acura dealers were selling for $495+....so i got a pretty good deal for a factory radiator...didnt really have a chance to look into aftermarket radiators, needed it fixed quick...