Well I was in line at the new sonics over here in Kentwood, MI on Clyde Park when i noticed my car getting pretty warm. It was about two ticks past the middle. I was in line for about 40 mins and was about to bail out when I suddenly seen steam come my car. I turned the car off instantly and everyone around me said they seen war gushing from the bottom of the car. What do you guys think this is just a broken pipe or maybe a water pump?

Help!!

 

If your aux. water pump started leaking it would get the engine block and trans soaked, which would account for the steam.

 

Water pump, thermostat, radiator fans. The water out the bottom was prolly from boiling over.

 

Yeah well it was a lot of steam and you could hear it bubbling when i poped the hood. I left it there overnight im going back after work today to see what happened exactly. I didnt see any hoses unclamped but it looked like it somethign happened underneathe the engine.

 

when i changed to the lower temp coolant temp sensor i didnt push in the clip all the way i guess so about 20 minutes into my drive the **** popped off and blew up coolant all over my engine bay...just another place to check

 

Oh yeah well I took the sensor out while the engine was still too warm (I swear I gave it enough time) and blew coolant all over the engine bay and burned my hand pretty good.

That was a fun day.

 

look at the expansion tank. If you still have the stock one, the threads on the cap break down pretty good and will allow the pressure to escape bringing down the boiling point allowing the coolant to expand and boil out through the over flow. Happened to me and it came to be a head gasket leak which allowed it to overheat and blow the cap straight off.

 

ouch, yea the day that happened to me i was 20 minutes into a 6 hour drive to a real important eye appointment that takes weeks to reschedule so i was trying to figure out how to repair it with no clip. tried zip tying it when everything was piping hot..no fun..it lasted long enough to get me down the road to my mech who didnt have any replacement clips and the only vw/audi supply store with a very limited supply(i live in a small town) was closed... yea i missed my appointment, had to get the part overnighted, lost the new clip in the unforgiving abyss of our engine bays. luckily that one shop had a metal clip that fit perfectly and havent had an issue yet, ps its nice having that new sensor cuz i dont have to let my car idle forever after spirited driving

 

Ended up being the radiator. I am so pissed off though, i had an accident with the car awhile back, i hit a big ice chunk in the road and it split my front bumper in half along hitting the radiator and putting a big dent it in. Thankfully i called my insurance company and they covered all of it with no deductable. Costed me $1825, well guess what happend the body shop never installed or put in a new radiator and i didnt notice cause the front bumper was covering it up and i never looked cause i trusted the guy well now i dont know what to do but he was suppose to fix it but i dont want him touching my car ever again.

The new shop said its going to cost me $600 to fix the radiator? is that right? How do you change it, i'd rather do it myself if it isn't too hard

 

Call the insurance company and explain. There is a warranty on the repairs if they paid for it.