White Smoke

I was driving home yesterday when my temp. light came on. I parked it and added coolant to the reservoir. I let it cool down for two hours than i got back in the car and drove it for 5 minutes. The temp. light went on and so did the engine light. The temp light turned on and off but the engine light remained on. I drove back home and when I parked white smoke was coming out from under the hood. Later on that night I took the lid off the radiator and it was bone dry. What is wrong with my car...

You have a leak in the water system under the hood. Fill the radiator, start the engine, and locate the leak. Usually it's a hose or a water pump.

If it is a leak is it worth it to fix on a car that has over 128k miles on it. Mind you i'm in the military so i don't excactly get paid big bucks.

I think its worth it, these cars last forever if you take care of them. Do what yogi said, and you'll be fine, then fix the leak, I'm willing to bet the bypass hose under your alternator is bad.

I was driving home yesterday when my temp. light came on. I parked it and added coolant to the reservoir. I let it cool down for two hours than i got back in the car and drove it for 5 minutes. The temp. light went on and so did the engine light. The temp light turned on and off but the engine light remained on. I drove back home and when I parked white smoke was coming out from under the hood. Later on that night I took the lid off the radiator and it was bone dry. What is wrong with my car...


I had a very similar experience with my '97 LeSabre with 85000miles. Turned out the plastic coolant (plenum) on top of intake manifold had ruptured and dumped coolant into intake manifold. Result was engine lockup, fix was replacement of intake manifold at cost of $800+. With no guarantee that it won't happen again. According to service writer at dealer, GM is aware of problem, and even has issued service bulletin, but is not a recall item.

its probably a blown head gasket id have that checked out first

its probably a blown head gasket id have that checked out first
I'd start with the cheapest thing first. Like in a previous post to this thread you can check the water pump, hoses(including upper and lower radiator hoses, heater hoses,) radiator, coolant overflow tank, and freeze plugs. You could also check your heater core, which if that is leaking will more than likely give you other signs that it is doing so.

If the fluid is leaking on the ground,it could be an external leak (hoses,fittings,ect.) if not its probably an internal leak and will be fairly costly to repair especially if you ran it for a while with the engine light on. The other thing is where did the white smoke come from? if it came from the exaust,Good Luck