I think it's my radiator

I've always had a slight coolant leak (a couple of drops after my car sits for hours on end). Yesterday I drive to the mall about 20 miles away, go in for about 2 hours, come back out and see a STREAM of coolant on the pavement. Toys R Us is on the other side of the parking lot so I decide to drive around the building, keeping a close watch on the temp guage and of course my car starts to overheat immediately. I walk to the gas station and get 2 gallons of coolant. I only ended up using one gallon to top it off, (The coolant gets low in the filler hole as soon as it's topped off every time. It never stays at the top.) After that, the car barely leaked for the entire day. Even after sitting last night, this morning all I see is a tiny puddle. I couldn't pinpoint the problem because coolant was EVERYWHERE, but if it was my radiator, why would it basically spill out everything in my system, and not do it again?

check out my mystery leak thread it might from there but mines is extremely small ill say maybe a couple of drops an hour but i still wana get it fixed soon.

yours might be worse cuz u lost most of ur coolant

Did you check to see what at what point inside the engine bay it was dry? If it was wet all the way up to the thermostat I would say that is your problem. Could be a blown head gasket but it would really have to be in bad shape to get that big of a puddle with just a head gasket so your can more than likely rule that out. Are the hoses old/cracked? Could be a hose if they are.Check all of your fasteners on the end of the hoses to make sure they are very snug. Otherwise check around the radiator for spots it might be coming out of. It is going to leak most often when it is hot of course do to the built up pressure inside so don't expect to turn on the car for a little bit and expect to find a leak (especially if it is small) . Good luck.

Well find where it's wet and try to pinpoint it by eye. If that doesn't work, buy a pressure tester, it'll make any leak obvious.

OK nvm I know it's my radiator. I saw it takin a leak today. It's weird thought it was a straight stream for a few seconds and then it died out like the pressure suddenly dropped. The car was off but anyway, I have a new one coming with new hoses also. Do I have to diconnect anything on the bottom to get the old one out or is it just held in place by the two reinforcments at the top?

There are some some small hoses on the bottom right side of the radiator. Nothing major at all.

OK well not only was I sure it was the radiator, but I blew the sh** out of it today. I know I know, I'm a dumbass for thinking a tiny leak would be fine for another week while waiting for the new one to arrive, but it wasn't. I was driving about 3 miles today keeping close watch on my guage, (not close enough) I pulled into my driveway and took one last look at it, I was steaming like crazy. Water poured out my radiator and I lost ALL of it. I was so POd I tore the radiator out in less than 5 minutes. I called to every auto shop and finally found one for 230 bucks (was 260). I'm gonna pick it up tomorrow at 11 and put it in, I have to be about 80 miles away tomorrow night so I have to get it done.

With the engine that hot, it wasn't for long, I would guess less than a minute, what are the chances I F*cked up my engine? The guage was reading RED line as high as it could go. But what am I looking at as far as my head gasket is concerned, etc. Later on in the night I pulled the car in the garage and everything seemed to be running OK, but that says nothing.

Time for a compression test...hope your heads are ok.

Why does the easiest thing cost so much? Got the new radiator in and everything seems to be working fine now. As a matter of a fact, I'm no longer studdering in the low RPMs and I seem to have the low end power I had when I bought the car. Kinda weird I assume the cooling system has nothing to do with performance. But one more question, do both the fans work at the same time or does the larger fan work more often than the smaller one? When I popped the hood after a short drive only the large fan was running.

The small fan turns on when the A/C is on.