So I was driving regularly, cruising going about 40 when I heard a bang. I thought something like a rock hit my windshield but I looked and there was coolant and smoke on it. I pulled over, shut my engine off and checked under the hood. My coolant cap was half hanging off the coolant tank, and there was coolant everywhere. Put a bit of coolant in it and started it and drove home. The check engine light was on when I started it. I got home and it was smoking and it looked like it was leaking under the passenger side. Any ideas?

2004 with reman with 45k miles

 

What was it leaking? What was it smoking (heh-heh), and where was the smoke coming from?

If coolant, check all the connections, hose everything out, refill, burp (I use the throttle body line) and get back to something that will run. If you can read the code, do that and let us know what it is or gently take it some place that can read the code.

If it is leaking something other than coolant, like oil, there are likely bigger issues.

 

I think it was leaking coolant it was dripping from the radiator. I think the coolant that was all over the engine was smoking since it were on a lot of hot places, but after I drove it home the coolant tank was smoking too, although it could have been spilled coolant also. I'll try and get the code read tomorrow, I'm just scared to drive it right now.

 

Definitely don't drive it if it can't hold coolant. What's the current coolant level?

It sounds like your coolant overflow bottle or the pressure cap failed, either because they were weakened or damaged, or because there was more pressure than they could handle. Normally your cap is supposed to vent above a certain pressure, so it's probably not the latter.

Say, is it possible you threw one of the belts at the front of the engine and it beat up on the coolant bottle?

 

++ ^^

Getting it to hold water is step 1. If you pour water in the bottle, and it comes out someplace else and hits the ground, that is the first thing to fix. Work through those until it holds water (burp through the throttle body line) then when it holds water, and you are sure there are belts on, try to start it.

Your CEL could be as simple as the coolant got freaking everywhere. One thing to do is clean up the MAF. If you still have the VAFD, the pick up is where the coolant bottle is. Feeding coolant through the air filter and across the MAF could make it all nasty. If you know someone with a code reader, having them come to read it for you would be stellar. Maybe one of the Houston guys will see this an offer to come by.

I strongly recommend the ultragauge if you are going to buy something. It will read and reset codes, and will also let you know a lot about what is going on in the engine. It is only a little more than the cheap code readers and less expensive than many. It will also let you set alarms for lots of things.

 

Siezed radiator cap spring, leading to over pressurizing sounds about right. The radiator tank would be the first to blow in this situation.

Believe it or not, you may very well have not overheated too badly.