wtf is wrong with my car! Coolant leaked out

Twista

Active Member
May 7, 2004
510
1
29
@ the z00 in chicago
Ok, so im driving and i look @ my temp guage and i see its all the way at the RIGHT. At this time im notice my lights start to flicker on my dash so, im thinking wtf. I make a quick turn into walgreens in a bad a neighborhood and pop my hood. All my ****ing coolant is gone. I think this happened after i hit some VERY.. VERY bad bumps on some of theses chicago streets. What couldve happened? Everything look good in the dark, but tomorrow i will check if any holes came loose. Its 7 F outside and i had to run to the ****ing gas station to buy something so i could use the damn pay phone. To make matters worse the ****er behind the bullet proof glass didnt have any quarters for my dollar and he acted all scared of me... oh and to my ****ing luck the pay phones all around this area has either been pulled or ****ing broke. So, i had to drive her home risking the engine... my celly is off, but i think im going to get it back on ASAP.

Back to its 7 F outside... i had to buy 3 ****ing bottles of water to throw in the engine and that kept it at abit before the "H" on the guage. What should i do??? I mean i dont want the water freezing up in my intake mainfold or whatever it goes.

DAMN It im pissed. BTW, i dont have the plastic crossover intake, so thats out of the question.
 
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Make sure you get that water out of there! That mayb e what the problem is in the first place if you had just water in there. Thats fine in the summer but once it gets this cold out it will freeze and you may as well have nothing in there. Good luck bro!
 
Make sure you get that water out of there! That mayb e what the problem is in the first place if you had just water in there. Thats fine in the summer but once it gets this cold out it will freeze and you may as well have nothing in there. Good luck bro!


Nope, it was anti-freeze in there. The problem was it was 11pm and the stores in this part of the city was close. Either it was add water from the gas station or be stranded :shrug:
 
Make sure you get that water out of there! That mayb e what the problem is in the first place if you had just water in there. Thats fine in the summer but once it gets this cold out it will freeze and you may as well have nothing in there. Good luck bro!

IMO, never use just water ... It will cause rust ... I've seen some nasty cases!



As for what could have gone wrong ... Can you see where coolant is dripping/leaking from? Is your check engine light on? Is your belt in tact? Check your petcock valve, maybe it got knocked loose/broken when you hit a bump (rare but it happened to a friend once) ... Good luck.

P.S. Gas stations sell antifreeze (not to aggrivate the situation more, just an FYI)
 
IMO, never use just water ... It will cause rust ... I've seen some nasty cases!


P.S. Gas stations sell antifreeze (not to aggrivate the situation more, just an FYI)

Thats why I said It was FINE to use water, not good. :)

And Twista I feel ya on the weather bro. Im right here in IL with ya. :) Best of luck with this prob!
 
check the water tube that runs under the utake manifold to the fire wall. could have rattled off..if ou pull the alternator off you can get a good look under the intake and if their is coolant sitting in their then that is your problem. good luck man.
 
:eek: :eek: :eek:
the EXACT SAME THING happened to me 2 or 3 weeks ago AND also to another SN member.

My temperature gauge shot up to the the highest temp, lights flickered, power steering and power braking went out all while doing 70mph. I turned off the car and managed to get it on a flat bed to a gas station.

My problem was that my thermostat went out and the engine temperature shot up causing a gasket to blow out and spray coolant all over the engine bay. The gasket that blew out was the one located where the upper radiator hose connects to the intake manifold. scary crap. it surprised the hell out of me when it happened.

Check out the engine and let us know of any other strange observations. hope its back and runnin again soon.
 
you guys think the thermostat could be going bad???

I mean it still throws out heat when the car is warmed up, but it also throws out coolant @ the overflow cap.

I mean maybe it is the thermostat. The one thats in there is the one that came with the nonpi intake manifold replacement which is like a 190. Its been awhile since it was changed, so maybe i need to just get a new one.
 
2 things. 1st just because you have the updated intake doesnt meen it wont leak. I've seen some that are starting to leak where the aluminum cross-over bolts to the plastic part of the intake and if the correct mixture of water/coolant/anti freeze isn't used, you can crack or break the coolant reservoir
 
Well, this sucks. Going to change the thermostat than its going to be towed to a garage. Damn, the only problem i ever have with this car deals with coolant being puked.

1) Cracked plastic intake

now

2) dunno, but coolant is puking.
Than again my neighbor is a mechanic so he could prob. take a look at her.
 
mechanic found nothing wrong with the stang other than acouple loose hoses that deals with the coolant system. The one that goes to water housing was loose and the one thats under the overflow tank was loose.

The part with it overflowing out of the tank was when i put to much coolant in the tank :/ Glad it wasn't anything bad. I drove it for about 20minutes and the temps stayed normal and the radiator fan kicked on once it got alittle hot with the a/c / heater turned on high. EVerything seems normal.

I wasted so much money buying stuff to fix this lol.. Had to get 2 gallons of coolant.. a new thermostat (which is not installed), a new o ring (not installed) and a new radiator cap. Who knows maybe my old radiator cap was worn and wasn't holding the right pressure.
 
You mentioned chicago bumps. My g/f busted her radiator when she pulled into a parking lot with a steep grade. She went to fast and bottom out the front end of her car. It wasn't so bad a leak that it leaked out until the car was stopped and sitting. Then all the antifreeze would run out on the ground.