djedix

I got a 2005 v6.. I took the car in for an oil change 2 weeks ago. They check all the fluids along with the oil. Never had an issue in the past with them. been taking it there since 2005 when i bought the car. anyways.. I didn't really drive the car after the oil change. Then the car sat for about a week while i was away on business. I drove the car around this past Sunday and when i got to my destination, about 2-3 mins after i parked i noticed antifreeze gushing out of the reservoir, like out from the cap.

I let the it sit and get cold, cleaned it up and put some more antifreeze into the reservoir up to the line on it. I tightened the cap. I ran the car for a while and watched the temperature gauge just stay in the middle. It's not over heating. The fan is kicking on when you turn on the heat or the air. I drove the car home and nothing, i thou noticed the level in the reservoir was a slight bit lower then the amount put in. There is no leaking at all when its cold. So the following day i drove the car all the way to work, opened the hood and the level was the same as the day before. Nothing happened. I drove it home and walked away for another 2-3 mins and it happened again, it started gushing from the cap.

I bought a new cap for the reservoir, and tested the car again. Again its not over heating or anything. I drove it all day yesterday and had no issue at all with it. Is it possible there is/was too much antifreeze in it? like I'm wondering if the people who changed the oil put in antifreeze because maybe the reservoir looked low or something, possibly forgot to tighten the cap all the way (if they opened it) and or damaged the cap? Or do I have a serious issue with the radiator/cooling system? Another question is how much antifreeze should be in that reservoir? aka is the line 3/4ths of the way up where that box/lettering is on the reservoir?

Nuke

Is it doing it with the new cap? It sounds as if the cap wasn't sealing properly (I just answered another thread nearly identical to this one). Providing you're not seeing any temperature fluctuations, white smoke out the tailpipe, oil in the coolant or strange oil color on the dipstick then it's NOT a head gasket.

Hopefully the grease monkey simply didn't tighten the reservoir cap properly or there was some crud underneath.

JimC

When my car did that I had blown head gaskets - exactly the same symptoms as you described. No overheating showing just coolant gushing out of the reservoir.

Joshspony

could it be a thermostat thats gumbed up and sticking periodically causing pressure?

Joshspony

never mind, he said he wasn't having any heating issues.

djedix

Well we've driven it around the past 3 days and it hasn't done it since we replaced the cap. So hopefully that's all it was.

Yea the temperature is not going past the halfway mark, no smoke and we didn't see any oil in the coolant. I'm going to check the oil dipstick to just make sure as well.

I was worried it could be the head gasket. I was thinking about changing the thermostat soon too since its coming up on 100k miles.

djedix

I just drove it over an hour and it just did it again. It felt hot when I was driving it... Like I had the heat/air off but the blowers felt hot like the heat was on the first setting.

Joshspony

Did you ever check the dipstick? White or other discoloring in the oil isn't good!

JimC

When my head gaskets went the reservoir showed no oil and the dipstick was fine as well.

jpacetti

The first time my headgaskets blew I had overheating problems but I verified it by the bubbles I could see in my radiator. I just had the same problem as you with no overtemping or other symptoms but this time it cost me my engine.