Need help quick!: Coolant Problem???
 

So today I replaced the alternator and battery.... Only owned the car for about 5 days now.


I decided to fill up the coolant as it was below the low line. I accidentaly over filled it without knowing beyond the "full line".

I went for a cruise and when I came back I saw some white smoke. I check under the hood and the cap on the hose from the rad I believe, has some coolant dripping out of it and its dripping onto the motor.

I emptied the coolant bottle up front and filled it between the "full" and "empty" lines.

I just had to go out to my friends, and 3 times the "add coolant" light beeped on. But there was plenty of coolant when I left.

I arrive to my friends and it stats smoking again and dripping out of the same spot. However its to dark to see whats going on out here...


Does anyone have any idea if this is something really wrong? It was not over heating, the temp guage stayed below the middle the whole time.

I did bring some coolant with me by chance, and im a 15 min drive from home. I just need to know before I start driving and its a really bad thing.

ok, you are filling the bottle up front right? are you checking in the rad? like the rad cap there and the other? If not youre screwed...white smoke= very very bad

the bottle in the front of the car is almost useless, as far as filling it up... you have to make sure there is coolant in the system, the bottle is no indicatoion of coolant in the system... if you are seeing white smoke you are in big trouble my friend, as you may have a blown coolant seal. depends on what the temp was reading. how far above halfway was it getting when you saw white smoke? i got a buzzer once, luckily it was cooler outside, and managed to make it home. turned out to be a bad hose under the uim...wasnt good, for me it wasnt a problem. when you check the coolant in the system (via the caps) top it off, run the engine for a few secs, not enought o make it super hot (be careful when removing the cap now, as it still might be under pressure) then refill as needed. you have to "burp" the system, as coolant flows through the throttle body, and air can get trapped here.

Edit: the gauge is very innacurate btw, and if you were low you could have gotten a bad reading (i.e. the coolant never passed over the sensor, in addition the sensor is quite slow anyway).

Well the temp guage was reading about halfway, if not a touchover half way the past few days...

Then today while driving it didnt even reach halfway, so the temp gauge was not reading it hot, in bewtween cold and the middle. Ill try filling it that way.... damn.

It only smoked when I came to a stop.

White smoke under the hood does not necessairly mean youve blown a coolant seal. Do a search on the forum for the blown coolant seal test and try it. The white smoke was coming from under the hood correct? If your exhaust does not smell sweet then you should be fine. Sounds to me like you need a new cap on the filler neck or you have a coolant leak somewhere around there. You should take care of the problem asap as on the S5 temp gague there is a very fine line between 'sorta warm' and 'need a new engine'.

Well I went out for a second inspection and I noticed the cap was a bit loose. I filled it up as much as I could at the cap until morning.

The temp guage was not even halfway to the haflway mark (so 1/4) and there wasn't any white smoke coming from the exhuast. Just from under the hood AFTER I had come to a complete stop.

White smoke from under the hood sounds like a coolant leak in the engine bay. The first place to look is the heater core line under the oil fill thingy. Also, check the lines on top of the engine. Look for white deposits, coolant leaves that when it gets out and dries on.