coolant river!?!?!?!?!
95maxsewv
12-28-2006, 08:22 PM
My girlfriend leaves me a message the other day.. I was at work and didnt get to check it right away. Later when I checked it she says that she stopped at blockbuster and let the car idle while she gathered her stuff and got some mail to put in the mailbox. When she got out of the car she stepped in orange liquid. She said she looked under the car and it was coming very quickly out from near the passenger wheel. She got back in the car and headed home. I got this message and immediately called her to tell her to stop where she was or atleast watch the temp guage very carefully. She had already made it home. She said on the way home the coolant light came on but she says she is 90% sure that the car did not overheat. It was only about a 1.5 mile drive from bockbuster home. When I got home she showed me the small river of coolant that was on the garage floor. The resevoir was almost completely empty.
So I park the car for a few days over xmas until I can look at it. Tonight I let the car idle for almost half an hour and watched it the whole time. The only coolant that leaked down to the floor was the little bit that I spilled. I watched the water pump, resevoir, and hoses. Nothing dripped or spilled. After abotu 30 minutes of idling and running the heat and not running the heat I drove the car for 10-15 minutes. I brought the car back into the garage and let it idle another 10 minutes.. I was able to open the coolant resevioir and look at the coolant. It was steaming out of the coolant a little. There still was no coolant dripping on the floor. All three hoses were atleast fairly warm so I know coolant was flowing and I could also see the coolant flowing in the resevoir. When I put the cap back on the steam still came out of the resevoir.
I have had to add coolant slowly to this thing for about the last 6 months. every now and then there is a little bit on the garage floor. but this time is the only time I have seen anything major happen and now I can't get it to repeat. I had a subaru do something very similar to this one tim eand it ended up being the head gasket letting exhaust into the coolant system and overpressurizing the system and blowing the coolant out. could this be what it is?
So I park the car for a few days over xmas until I can look at it. Tonight I let the car idle for almost half an hour and watched it the whole time. The only coolant that leaked down to the floor was the little bit that I spilled. I watched the water pump, resevoir, and hoses. Nothing dripped or spilled. After abotu 30 minutes of idling and running the heat and not running the heat I drove the car for 10-15 minutes. I brought the car back into the garage and let it idle another 10 minutes.. I was able to open the coolant resevioir and look at the coolant. It was steaming out of the coolant a little. There still was no coolant dripping on the floor. All three hoses were atleast fairly warm so I know coolant was flowing and I could also see the coolant flowing in the resevoir. When I put the cap back on the steam still came out of the resevoir.
I have had to add coolant slowly to this thing for about the last 6 months. every now and then there is a little bit on the garage floor. but this time is the only time I have seen anything major happen and now I can't get it to repeat. I had a subaru do something very similar to this one tim eand it ended up being the head gasket letting exhaust into the coolant system and overpressurizing the system and blowing the coolant out. could this be what it is?
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