Ray

I was driving home today and noticed steam coming up from under the bonnet. The water temp gauge got up to 4 bars. Since I was only a mile away I babied it home.





The coolant and steam was coming up from the area right in front of the radiator cap.
My guess is blown radiator. Can anyone think of anything else that could be broken?


The car has 127,000 miles.

Mrfixit687

Pressure check the cooling system to see where it is leaking from and go from there.

04S2kSS

Ouch....sorry to hear...

Slows2k

The radiator's top tank is cracked or the tank seal is leaking. Time to replace it.

ahrmike

YEp. You can see the where the water hit. Its most likely a small leak that will only appear as the rad gets hot (expansion) thats how mine went @ 66Kish....

Avionics86

Also change your radiator cap. Over time the rubber seal in the cap swells and does not allow the pressure to vent. I know from experience.

Slows2k

New OEM radiators come with a new cap. The rubber seals usually only swell when the coolant has been contaminated.

istdercollen

I had this same thing happen and it turned out to be a faulty thermostat. Changed it and it stopped boiling over. I dunno, just a thought.. and a cheaper one at that. when I took out the thermostat the rubber seal on it was cracking to bits.

Ray

When coolant boils over shouldn't it go to the overflow tank. I checked the tank and the coolant was sucked down to the bottom and I remember filling it up not too long ago. Also you can see where the water was coming out of by the splash mark.

New radiator was about $150 so that's not too horrible, but I'm wondering if I should be replacing, thermostat radiator hoses and water pump too.

How long do water pump last in our car?

Kyushin

Im not sure about others, but I have never heard of the water pump failing on our cars.