Deb came home from school today sputtering about her car, something about overheating, steaming, spraying, hissing. My first reaction was anger: How is that possible? I replaced the radiator! There's absolutely no excuse for it to be leaking.
So, after a while -- I was in the middle of something else when she got home -- I went out to the car and looked underneath. There was a couple green drops of coolant clinging to the bottom of the drive axle. And there was some kind of fluid underneath the car, soaked into the concrete, but it wasn't green. So I popped the hood, checked the coolant level ... and it was fine.
Huh?
It wasn't even hot. Over-hot, I mean. the kind of over-hot that burns fingers or shoots steam. And not a trace of coolant anywhere in the front or top of the engine compartment. Including near the heater core hoses.
But those drops down below ... make me nervous.
According to theory, if there is coolant underneath the engine but not above or in front, that is an indication that coolant may be getting into the engine via a bad head gasket and being overpressurized which results in spewing out the heads. And if the coolant is being spewed onto the hot exhaust system (which might be the case), that would explain the steaming and hissing.
If indeed the gasket is bad, the car will overheat on a ten-mile trip. And then it will overheat on a five-mile trip. And then on a two-mile trip. That's what happened to my primary car, Serenity (which is still waiting to be put back together).
We don't need any more car troubles at the moment. There's plenty of other things to stress out about.
I topped off the fluids and took the car for a spin over to the auto parts store, got another couple of gallons of coolant, watching the temperature dial like a hawk. Didn't even get up to the half-way point the whole time. But I still don't trust it.
I'm going to be checking it every day til I figure out what's going on.
Because while I like mystery stories, I don't like 'em when they happen to my car.
So, after a while -- I was in the middle of something else when she got home -- I went out to the car and looked underneath. There was a couple green drops of coolant clinging to the bottom of the drive axle. And there was some kind of fluid underneath the car, soaked into the concrete, but it wasn't green. So I popped the hood, checked the coolant level ... and it was fine.
Huh?
It wasn't even hot. Over-hot, I mean. the kind of over-hot that burns fingers or shoots steam. And not a trace of coolant anywhere in the front or top of the engine compartment. Including near the heater core hoses.
But those drops down below ... make me nervous.
According to theory, if there is coolant underneath the engine but not above or in front, that is an indication that coolant may be getting into the engine via a bad head gasket and being overpressurized which results in spewing out the heads. And if the coolant is being spewed onto the hot exhaust system (which might be the case), that would explain the steaming and hissing.
If indeed the gasket is bad, the car will overheat on a ten-mile trip. And then it will overheat on a five-mile trip. And then on a two-mile trip. That's what happened to my primary car, Serenity (which is still waiting to be put back together).
We don't need any more car troubles at the moment. There's plenty of other things to stress out about.
I topped off the fluids and took the car for a spin over to the auto parts store, got another couple of gallons of coolant, watching the temperature dial like a hawk. Didn't even get up to the half-way point the whole time. But I still don't trust it.
I'm going to be checking it every day til I figure out what's going on.
Because while I like mystery stories, I don't like 'em when they happen to my car.
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