Has 210K miles. My wife was driving the car today and called me frantic. She said there was white smoke coming out of the hood and pulled over. She said the temperature level was in the middle, normal. I got to her about 30 minutes later and popped the hood. The coolant reservoir was empty and the plastic lid to it was crooked, so I pulled it up and the rubber hose connected to it inside was burnt and melted down. And the smell and smoke was definitely coming out of there. Underneath the car wasn't too much fluid, but a little. Couldn't tell if it was the pink/red fluid, but more water like.
I'm taking it to a chain shop unfortunately, need to get it fixes asap. I want to see what yall think about this before they do a diagnostic?
Thank you!
Did you take any photos? You need to find out where the coolant went. Did something rupture suddenly ... did it leak or burn off slowly over time until the engine finally overheated? .... Hard to say without further inspection.
Rubber doesn't typically melt though.
It would be no surprise for a 16-year-old vehicle to blow a coolant hose. Be careful, if you feel you have to use a chain shop they will probably try to upsell you like crazy.
@chucktobias I decided to just have it towed to my local private mechanic, so I feel better there. Before the tow truck came I tried to inspect and couldn't see anything ripped or obviously wrong. Only interesting thing was opening the radiator cap there was nothing left, just dried up looking brown/white sludge. The oil dipstick was perfect, clean and within the range. All other fluids seemed good too. I'm sure if my wife drove any further it would have overheated, I think the white smoke she saw might have been steam.