A river of coolant, from under my car...fun
 

I went to start my car and a loud wine and an idiot light demanded me to add more coolant. So I hopped out and I don't know how I didn't see it walking up to my car, however, there was a large river of coolant leading about 20 yards from under my car to the nearest storm drain.

It is really cold out and I am thinking my air seperator tank cracked when it cooled down to fast. It is to dark to see now, and I also have no idea where the AST is so I couldn't check, but does this sound like the right conclusion?

The factory AST is black and attached to the factory intercooler. It'll have a radiator cap on it, prlly says something along the lines of "Warning."

-Alex

thanks, however, does that sound like what has happened.

If you have the factory radiator, one of the end tanks could have cracked, could have a hole in the radiator, factory AST could have cracked, or a hose could be off, or cracked/split.

-Alex

It might be tricky finding the source of the leak. The belly pan on the bottom of the car will divert coolant a long way before it reaches the ground. Start with the AST (between the intercooler and battery) and keep going from there. If the AST looks ok, then remove the airbox so you can get a look at the radiator and turbo coolant hoses.

A leak that's THAT large shouldn't be super hard to find. May be a pain to fix whatever it is, though :).

Good thing it happened in your driveway and not miles from home!

Dale

I was thinking the same thing.

check your water pump

I'd do a pressure test, go and try and find a coolant pressure tester and see where the leak is coming from, it shouldn't be hard to find, you'll probably see a steady stream coming from the end tanks of the radiator, those things are stupid and made of plastic. Than i'd go on the forums and try seeing if anyone will give you a stock radiator for cheap and an AST for free. It could be numerous things... but at this stage i don't think you have any coolant seals blown, pressurize it, it'll save you a lot of time if you spot the source right away.

I had this shit happen to me around 20 miles from home. I was heading out to the drags when I stopped for some drinks when the CEL went on and the car's idle dropped. I stopped and a large pool of coolant was there. The curious thing was that the temps stayed the same so I drove home. It ended up being the reservouir on the passengers side and the CEL was the EGR. What are the chances of both crapping out at the same time. Only in a 7.

Refill the coolling sys. Warm the car up. Shut it off and wait for the pressure to build up enough to leak. I suggest taking off the front black plastic piece at the intake intercooler area so you can see the radiator a little better. The undercover makes it harder to locate leaks because the coolant drips onto it and then flows off of it.

If you lost that much coolant I highly doubt it was the AST. With that much coolant gone would start at the upper and lower radiator hoses and the radiator end tanks.

Dave, why bother taking anything off that may not be broken? Too much work... I'm w/ technonovice on this one:

W/ this method, you should be able to isolate the leak to a region if not pinpoint it in 30 seconds flat.

:withstupi Although, if the car was fully warmed up, the heat would cause a steady flow of the coolant toward the AST, or at least that's what I've seen when the hose going to the AST got eaten away at by my pulley (it was too long)

Fixed yet?