Why does coolant spew out when I remove the coolant cap while the car is running? My other cars do not do this. Thanks in advance.

 

The overflow tank or the pump and/or ast? Because the system is under pressure. Under pressure water boils at a higher temp you remove the pressure the air/pressure holding the water down drops, water boils expands and shoots up in your face burning your flesh off.

[EDIT] Normally other systems are under pressure as well but no where near the heat limit of the FD. Some car never see over 200 degrees.

 

Hmm....coolant caps on other cars should do the same thing. I *think* you might be getting the radiator cap mixed up with the overflow coolant cap.

 

No the caps are where they should be. When I open the filler cap and the AST cap, I get same results. As for my other cars, I can open the cap while the engine is running without any splurging.

 

I get a coolant gushing out every time I open a hot coolant cap on any car. This is something I have learned not to do until pressure is released or I release the pressure.

 

Is you engine warm when you do this? In some cases, this is a sign of coolant seal failure. As the highly pressurized exhaust gases are getting forced through the your coolant seals and then through the coolant system evenutally pushing your coolant back out of the filler cap. Are you losing coolant? Do you see small bubbles in the coolant at the filler neck?

Thanks,

Matthew Walsh

 

Nah...I tried performing the champagne bubble test to get rid of my paranoia even though I have no signs of failure (knock on wood) while the car was running. I had heard that the test should be peformed when the engine is running prior to doing so. I now know with cap off, the car needs to be started cold to check for bubbles. I appreciate all of your input.

 

You should pull the cap off while the car is cool/cold (otherwise coolant will most likely come out leaping at you). You still need to start and run the car to view the bubbles (if any) in the filler neck.

 

Okay. Thank you very much Mahjik you are great help. Feel free to lock/delete this thread now.

 

Not to carry this discussion any further, but WTF are people doing opening the caps when the cars already been running anyways? People just asking to get sprayed with anti-freeze...

 

Ahh, but they're learning from it, and that's what counts

Dave <- who was reluctant to even run the engine from cold with the cap off the first time.

 

Thats exactly what I thought when I read it, I have a friend who did that, because he heard to change the coolant you have to do it with the engine running, he got hurt twice the hot SCALDING coolant and the smack I gave him afterwards. Amazing how some common sense can help. I thought something like this was common knowledge.

 

LOL