Help! coolant all spilled

swimmingly · 05-18-2005, 01:55 PM

I drove for about an hour in California weather (pretty hot) and stopped to park the car. Then I heard a small pop and coolant came gushing out from the bottom of my car as steam came up from all sides under the hood. I popped open the hood and the expansion resevoir tank was empty, there was still some steam coming from the back of the engine, and the back of the engine was all wet. Any ideas as to what happened and how much it'll cost to repair?

FWIW, the inside cabin heater had been on full heat for the past day or two. I figured it was just the valve in the car, but I wasn't sure. Now I think it might be related.

JRMock · 05-18-2005, 02:14 PM

There is a small heater hose that exits the head at the rear of the engine, and enters the heater control valve. From the valve there is a hose that goes into the heater core, behind the firewall, and another hose to a hard pipe that returns to the water pump in the front.

The most likely culprit...is the small hose going to the heater control valve. Easy, inexpensive fix.

However, since your heater has been on several days...the heater control valve may have gone kaput. Not too expensive, but hard to get at.

Good luck,
JM

swimmingly · 05-18-2005, 03:54 PM

JRMock, I think what you said is right. Unfortunately, I'm at a friends place in Santa Monica and need to move the car to somewhere...anywhere by tonight.

I also checked it again like 5 hours later and despite all the coolant that spilt out onto the ground, the reservoir is now back up to it's normal level once again! If this makes any sense, are the coolant for the heater and coolant for the engine separate from one another? Is it safe to drive?

livewirevoodoo · livewirevoodoo's Garage

don't drive it.

why risk it?

AAA roadside service with 100 mile tows = $60/yr... Warped, overheated engine = ???

swimmingly · 05-18-2005, 05:51 PM

I ran the engine for about 4 minutes and there didn't seem to be anything happening although I'm not sure if the coolant was circulating yet because the lower radiator hose to the water pump was very flexible as though there was nothing but air in it. But yeah, the coolant tank still appears to be almost full and it only went down a little after I turned off the engine and while the turbo water pump ran for a bit.

Any other ideas? Home is about 50 miles away for me. AAA will only tow it 7 miles since I have the cheaper plan and I've gotta move it someplace tonight. The nearest shop said they don't even have room for the car. I'm gonna try driving it at the dead of night to some other place where I can leave it for a few days.

swimmingly · 05-18-2005, 10:01 PM

One last question...are the hoses to the heater core difficult to get at and replace? It looks like they're cheap, just need to decide if I should tackle it myself or not.

JRMock · 05-19-2005, 06:45 AM

The coolant for the heater and engine are the same.

It sounds like either the hose, or the heater control valve broke, and with the coolant under pressure, it sprayed out.

If your coolant level was low to begin with, then the overflow tank would have been drained to supply additional coolant to the system. This is probably why the tank was empty when you first looked.

Afterwards, as the system cooled, the coolant, (no longer pressurized) would find its own level, and since the heater valve is above the coolant tank, the coolant would fill the lower cavities, thus partially filling the coolant tank.

Running a cool engine for 4 minutes may not be long enough to open the thermostat, and if there are air pockets in the system, the water will not circulate properly. This may explain why the lower hose felt empty.

Once the thermostat opens, the coolant will pump out the heater valve/hose very quickly.

If you pump all the water out of the system, you can ruin the engine in less that a minute.

I would not run the car for more than thirty seconds until I could find and repair the leak.

YMMV

good luck
JM

Paul Glasson · Paul Glasson's Garage

Don't know if the 951 system is similar to 944, but I had water blow out from the overflow on the expansion bottle and this was piped to bottom back of engine. I had removed relays on the relay board and put the one for the fan control back in wrong slot, so the fans did not work. The temperature gauge had gone up virtually to full. After changing temperature switch and fitting relay in correct slot the car had no ill effect. Did you see how far up the gauge indicated. Check the fan circuit operates properly, possibly that is the problem.

HughA44s · 05-25-2005, 09:31 AM

You may not want to read this -- My car had the same problem and what was happening was the head gasket was leaking and pressurizing the coolant system. The coolant was shooting out the overflow tube. The car would cool down and the level would return to normal. The radiator remain full but the area around the cyclinders was empty. The fix was a new head gasket but I had to get the block and head resurfaced. A compression check did not reveal the problem because the pressures and heat was not there and I never got oil into the coolant like you might on a normal HG blow. FYI -- happened at about 100k miles and I had been spending a lot on time in heavy traffic on hot days.