I was coming home today and about 5 minutes from my house I noticed the temp. gauge climb. I noticed a knocking that could be heard and felt through the clutch (something mechanical was failing probably). I pulled in a parking lot as soon as possible and waited. I then drove back as slow as possible.
The coolant itself has exploded all over the engine bay. And there were gurgling noises coming from all over (maybe inside the block). The radiator itself was hot as hell.
From what I can tell there are no leaks (maybe unless I turned the car on again). The only thing that cause everything to get wet was the coolant exploding out of the coolant tank.
Any ideas on what it can be? How would something fail instantly like that? Hose? Pump? I wasn’t driving it hard at all as it’s pretty slick out too. It just started to get hot.
I don’t have an incredible amount of mechanical experience…
I’d also like to add that the coolant in the tank was hot as piss so I guess it must have been recirculating without any issues (that may rule out the water pump).
Well it could be a pin hole leak letting air into the system, could be filled with crap not letting it circulate very well. In my experience, cooling systems suck to try and diagnose an issue in, and its best to take it to a professional first.
Yeah, I’m gonna take it down to Fountain Tire tomorrow. They are like 1km from me so I don’t have to tow it.
Anyhow this morning, I started it up and its sounded fine. The coolant level was still the same. The only leaking I saw was just the stain from the coolant that dripped off the stuff it exploded on in the engine bay. No knocking, either. I don’t think I fucked a head gasket or anything of that sort because the motor sounded ok and the there was no smoke burning. All the hoses on the rad seem to be fine. The water pump itself has no leaks around it.The radiator cap seemed to be on there no problem. It was a Nismo one replacing the OEM one.
I’m really hoping its a thermostat.
I did have my heat on at the time I was driving it. It was set to 25 but when it felt way hotter at a certain point. That’s what initially drew me to the temp gauge before shutting it down.
I got the cooling system checked out today at a Fountain Tire. They did a full on pressure test of the cooling system and found absolutely no leaks anywhere (hoses, rad, water pump, etc…). They checked the thermostat and it seemed to function properly. They even checked the head gasket and it was perfect. They test drove the car for 1/2hr trying to get it to overheat and it just wouldn’t. I drove the vehicle around for an hour today and it was running perfectly. The only thing they said that was off was the coolant. They said it was rated to -10c in it’s mixture with the antifreeze. This is kind of funny since in the heat of the moment when the car was boiling up I absentmindely dropped in 100% antifreeze straight up.