ValeTudo

Today I went out to take a look at this car and found that the roads were still too bad to drive safely. The undercarriage was taking a beating, so I end up turning back to head home, but got stuck on a hill. For awhile I try to try to move forward and back, but have little progress. I also tried upshifting while spinning to get some much traction, but no luck. I end up calling AAA for a tow.

While I am waiting for the tow truck, I try to get some traction again and see steam coming from the front of the hood. I immediately shut the car off. I pop the hood and see coolant all over the top of the radiator, and a bit on the battery. The tank was totally empty. I turned the car off so quick that I forgot to look at the temp gauge.

Anyways, I get towed back home, fill up the coolant and let it idle for 10 minutes or so. I go for a short drive and the reservoir has went down quite a lot by the time I park(coolant just going back into the motor?). I also see some very small bubbles coming up into the reservoir. So I fill it up again, and let it idle. I don't see bubbles anymore. The weird part is that I can't find coolant leaking anywhere underneath the car while it's at idle. I figured that a leaky hose or water pump would result in that.

Any idea what is likely going on here? Car is a 2000 GT. I'm decent with this stuff but not very experienced. Any input would be appreciated.

.boB

Too cold for overheating, despite what you were doing. Unless there's a problem with the system, like the pump is failing, thermostat closed, etc.

My other thought is a head gasket.

03BottleFedGT

your best bet is to pressure test the system to see where it is coming from.

ValeTudo

Alright, I checked the car in the morning and couldn't find any visable leaks, but I made note of the coolant level. I drove a solid 40 minutes and kept an eye on the temp gauge. It warmed up normally. I checked the coolant level and looked for any leaks after the drive and found everything looking normal.

I don't get it. Could I have just ran low on coolant? I don't see why it would have leaked all over the top of the reservoir and battery, but it did. I checked the oil and didn't see any water in it just to be safe if it could be head gasket. I'm not smelling any antifreeze from the exhaust or the heater, either. I don't just see why it would have burst from the reservoir.
The only other unusual factor I could think of was that I was on an incline for quite awhile when I got stuck, but I don't see how that would matter.

ValeTudo

The motor has 98k on it, do the head gaskets commonly go on these cars that early?

ValeTudo

Coolant was low again this morning, I'm gonna take it in to the shop to get it checked.

ValeTudo

Turns out that the fan was not turning on due to a blown fuse. The coolant would then boil and overflow. There were no leaks. I'm glad it was something so minor.