Ok, about a week ago I was driving home and my car wasnt running hot at all. The temp guage only goes up about 1/3 of the way and stays their, so if anything I would say its runing cool. Well when I pulled into my spot and shut the car off there was hella steam coming from under my hood. I popped the hood and my radiator sprung a leak somehwere cuz there was antifreeze all over the place but I couldnt tell where it was coming from. Well being this is my only running car right now I kinda have to drive it til’ I can get the cash for a new radiator. Well in the last couple days the radiator has stopped leaking. I checked the coolant level and its fine. My car isnt overheating at all and I cant even find a few drops of coolant anywhere after I’m done driving it. WTF?? Why would my radiator be spraying coolant everywhere one day and not even leak the next?? What could be going on here???
Where was it leaking from? Top or bottom? Could you have a headgasket problem? Fuel mixing w/ coolant?
I’m not sure were it was leaking from. There was coolant everywhere so it was hard to tell. If I had to guess I would say the top though, it kinda looked like alot of it was dripping down.
How can I tell if I have a headgasket problem or not?? And why would that make my radiator leak?? And also, how is it even possible for fuel to mix with the coolant??
are you sure it was from the radiator? there are lots of little coolant hoses, and several of mine have leaked, or the clamps have gotten weak and coolant has leaked out the ends. One of the hoses to my FITV leaked, that was a pain to trace b/c it only did it sometimes.
I’m almost positive it was coming from my radiator. My headlights and battery were covered in antifreeze. I think whatever was leaking was on the front side of the radiator by the way the antifreeze was sprayed.
From the radiator there is a hose on top that leads to a plastic tank (sorry forgetting the name of that right now) where more coolant is put. Did you by chance put too much in this plastic tank? If you did, it could’ve just over flowed and gotten all over the place. This happened to me once. 
I think that might be it. I did add coolant to the resovoir thing maybe a week or so before this happened. Will the radiator leak coolant if there is too much?? Hopefully thats all it is.
If you add too much coolant to the resivour, it will leak, but the rad will not. If your rad is low on coolant, it will suck up more from the rev., but once it’s full, it will put whatever it doesn’t need back into the rev. and if it’s too full, it will shoot out from the cap of your resivour. It happened to me a couple times.
I’m pretty sure it’s not a headgasket problem. If it was, you would see white smoke coming out of your tailpipes.
Check your radiator cap also.
What he said. :werd:
Yeah, there isnt any white smoke coming from my tailpipe. The only time I ever see white smoke is when its cold out in the morning, but thats when its coming out of all cars.
This is really starting to boggle my mind now. The leak definitely wasnt coming from the resivoir. If I had to guess I would say somewhere around the cap on the radiator along the top of the radiator. But I dont think it was my cap that was leaking because I never messed with it before and after this happened. This is really starting to drive me nutz now. I know right when I start to trust the damn thing again its gonna blow up in my face and theres gonna be alota coolant everywhere!!! I just wanna figure out if its fucked up or not so I can go ahead and replace it if need be. I’m still confused as to why it would just really leak one time and then stop after that???
Can’t you take the cap to an auto parts store and have them pressure test it.
I think the system needs to be pressure tested, to check the cap. Prolly cheaper just to buy a new one, $7 or $8?
The leak could be from the smaller hose under the top radiator hose, I had a leak from that hose. ONLY leaked when the temp is high after the car been running long enough to build up pressure. Same leak happen twice.
does your fan work? your thermometer might be broken. How do your hoses look? Are they relatively new? You’ll know that they need to be changed if they’re all swollen and junk. Hose change is very cheap and easy to do if that is the problem. If anything, you can just buy a whole new rad. They’re so cheap.
you need a cooling system pressure tester… hook that bads boy up and check for leaks… remember to check your radiator cap as well…