I have no idea whats going on with my car. It started about four days ago driving on the interstate back 2 my house. The temp gauge went from just below horizontal to about 10 oclock position. I was like ****! but as soon as it was up 2 10 oclock position it went back down 2 horizontal now im like WTF! it did this a couple more times in a couple of miles so i pull over. Once pulled over the temp gauge went up and stayed up and add coolant buzzer came on. Turned off car and popped the hood. Steam was coming out of overflow tank and it looked like water was leaking from it 2. Got a ride home went back to my car with some water and the filler neck was only bout a inch below top but overflow tank was empty. Drive home was fine no problems. Next morning water was in a puddle under car but overflow tank was full and the filler neck was. Car was fine for bout four more days then I drove my car 2 the mall 20 min drive on highway everything was fine but after i get out of mall around 20 min i notice water undermy car. backed it out and drive it for 45 sec then pulled over in some empty parking spots. Water was leaking from what appered to me as the overflow tank. got a ride to walmart picked up some antifreeze put it in car. Ran fine on the way home. Drove 25 min on highway 2 drop off gf temp was fine get 2 her house and i go 2 leave and i see another puddle of water stopped car and some thing as before. Was looking around with a flash light and say a puddle of antifreeze in the space under the headlights(not on the ground). Drives fine on ride home and another puddle under car this morning. WTF is going on im lost.

my coolant mix was almost all water when this started 2 happen. now im adding antifreeze not water 2 the car.
Any help would be nice Thank you

 

all water = boiling over at lower temp

anti freeze lowers the boiling point so i think your all water mix system was just boiling over at a lower temp than you would expect

 

So i should just flush it out and put correct water/antifreeze mix in it and that will fix it? And when i do that should i use the green or orange stuff? Thanks

 

Besides what Damian said, your problem sounded similar to mine. Coolant would dump ever so often, and be fine other days, coolant buzzer goes on, etc. It turned out that the hose leading from the AST to the overflow had come off, and it was a simple job of putting it back on, and zip tying it to keep it tightly on.

 

Start checking all the hoses. There are the two main radiator hoses. One for the top and the other to the bottom of the radiator. There are two that run to the heater core. One of these runs from a nipple on the side of the radiator filler neck near the bottom to the passenger side of the engine compartment, and back toawards the firewall. The other comes out of the firewall on the driver's side under the brake fluid resivour and connects to the stupid plastic thing on the side of the motor. I eliminate that nipple cause it always leaks and just put the hose on the metal nipple with 2 clamps Then there are the two turbo coolant hoses. One feeds the coolant to the turbos. It runs from the side of the water filler neck in front of the lower intake manifold and to the turbos. The return hose comes from under the turbos and back to the filler neck. There are also the two throttle body coolant hoses. One is under the intake manifold where it comes out of a nipple on top of the motor and goes into the back of the throttle body. The other comes out on top of the motor near the crossover pipe and connects to a hard metal pipe that runs across the top of the engine. The only other lines are the ones that flow to the ast and the overflow tank. If none of the hoses are leaking, then check the overflow tank for splits and also the ast, especially if you have the pos stock plastic one. If nothing leaks then you most likely have a busted coolant o-ring inside the motor. It is pressurizing the coolant system and forcing coolant out of the overflow. With how high the temperature guage got, this is unfortunatley the most likely case.

 

Water cools better than antifreeze, but you want a little antifreeze to prevent corosion and freezing. In Texas I run about 80% water with 20% antifreeze and a bottle of Redline water wetter. You mever want to run more coolant than you need cause it won't cool as well. Do the math and figure out how much freezing protection you need, depending on where you live and how cold it gets. What protects you from boilover is mostly the pressure the coolant system is run under. Try replacing your caps too. The rubber seals wear out and leak over time.

 

If it was my O-rings wouldnt i see white smoke out of the tail pipe? and when it got hot it never stayed hot for more then a min after i pulled over. most of the times it was less than a min. My car runs and idles fine. So, i dont think it is the O-rings but it could be. i hope its not cause im a lil short on the $$$ for that.

 

install new rad cap ...stant 16 psi.

pressure test system, on jacks, belly pan off. look for leaks. tee pump into ast lines.

make sure u can very slowly suck coolant up the hose from the overflow.

fill and burp system with 40% min antifreeze and dist water. top off neck and ast, fill oveflow to proper level (~1/3).

don't use dexcool/red. can use zerex G05.

 

You may want to check the thermostat. I had the same problem/symptoms and I went ahead and change the thermostat and that seemed to take care of it. It has been 8 months and no more coolant leaks. I hope this helps. Good luck.

 

Make sure you bleed the cooling system properly. I just had a similar experience with an '87 N/A. Thought I'd topped it up properly and it just kept pumping out coolant. Sometimes I could drive a few miles, sometimes 20+ miles. I just spent something like 30 minutes bleeding and 'burping the system and it seems to be happy again. The proper procedure (from the '88 Factory Service Manual) is to top up the coolant using the bleeder on the radiator, close the bleeder and leave the rad cap off. start the engine and keep on topping it up until it stops blowing bubbles (you ought to turn on the heat in the car when you do this to blow any air out of the heater coils). These cars seem to be really sensitive to any air pockets in the system.