WolfieeifloW

Hey there guys!
I signed up just to ask this, so hopefully you all can help me out !

Just recently (Two days ago) I was driving, got home, and the hose leading to (What I believe) is the overflow for my rad had blown off. There was smoke, because the fluid was hot and it was touching the cold metal (Something like -20C outside).
Also, the fluid in my radiator was above the 'hot line'.

Now, I put the hose back on and all was fine (Or so it seemed). Today I drove across town (About 10 minute drive) and the gauge was above the red line. I opened the hood, and the rad fluid was above the 'hot line' again.
I turned the car off and went inside to shop. When I came back out, the fluid had gone all the way down to maybe two inches (At least 4-5 inches below the 'cold line').

Now, I turned the car on and the gauge was already at half.
Driving home, by the time I got back there, it was up over the H red line again.


What's going on..?

WolfieeifloW

Oh, and also. When I turn the heat on, it is nothing but cold air.

And when I got back home, I left the car on outside for about 10 minutes and when I went back out the fluid was above the hot line about 2 inches, the gauge still red over H red line, and, the important part, the inside of the car smelt funny (Sort of like rad fluid, I guess).

LilRoush

You don't have coolant like you thought. The overflow bottle mislead you. When it blew all over, you lost a lot. It also explains why it over heated again and why you have no heat (need coolant circulating through the heater core to get heat inside).

Let the car cool down, then top off the coolant in the radiator and the bottle.

WolfieeifloW

Do you mean put in 50/50 antifreeze/rad fluid?

LilRoush

Mix antifreeze down with water, just make sure you test it (they sell a little tube with some floating ***** at any parts store). You need it to be strong enough to not freeze in the temps you see up North. When I lived in Minnesota and North Dakota, I'd mix about 75% antifreeze and 25% water for the really cold months.

jimkaray

Sounds like you're thermostat maybe sticking closed. That caused overheating and you lost a bunch of coolant. When you fill it up be sure to purge the air from the system from the white cap near the thermostat housing. If an airbubble is in there the t-stat won't open up either, it needs to be in coolant to know when to open up. Really though you should probably replace the t-stat at this point. Hopefully you have a warm place to work on it:-)