Yesterday I was driving to dinner (it was a very hot and humid day) and when I pulled in I noticed a massive amount of smoke rolling out of my hood. My check engine light popped on and I quickly shut the car off. I was dumb and did not look at the temp gauge because I quickly popped the hood to look what was happening. I noticed immediately that the cap to the coolant overflow tank was completely melted and this caused the expanded coolant to shoot all over my engine bay. This entire day before this happen as well my air conditioning was having a very hard time working as well. I got it towed to my mechanic in town but I'm wondering what possibly could have gone wrong? anyone else have any problems with this? I know theses cars are notorious for high under hood temps, but this is a bit out of hand. Only one of my radiator fans will come on when I turn my A/C on without the car on. Other than that the only thing I can think of is that oil somehow got into my coolant (blown head gasket?). Any help would be fantastic.

 

While I was reading your post, the first thing that came into my mind is the blown head gasket. Yeah the temps can get high in our engine bays but we have some very good fans. I don't really know if both fans should come on when A/C is on though. I've only seen my car run with both of them on when I am under the hood. Hopefully someone here can shed more light.

Sorry to hear that happened though....

 

well, it can be a number of things, and since you dont have the car any more, its pointless for us to guess which item failed.

things that can fail
- water pump
- head gasket
- radiator became clogged with debris


if you still had your car, we can troubleshoot it, to help determine which factor caused the car to over heat...
but since you dont have it; just let the mechanic trouble shoot it for you

he's going to check the "check engine Light" to determine what tripped it.
then, depending on what tripped the "CEL" he'll go more in depth.

 

Thank you both for the responses. Normally I would attempt to fix it myself but I don't have too much experience with cooling systems. What would the cost of head gasket with labor be?

 

^I wouldnt bet on the head gasket right away!
it could be any number of things!


the heads have to come off, which is a pretty daunting task, as I recently swapped my heads.
each head is like 20-30lbs!
then, acura recommends new head bolts, which was like 10-15 bux each. you'll need 8 for each head.
then the gasket was like $100

so,maybe like 200-300 in parts and like another 200-300 for labor.

 

how many miles do you have on your car and did you do the timing belt, yet?

 

120,000 and yes timing belt was done around 105k

 

Those overflow caps tend to go bad regardless. I'm not saying thats what happened to you but I had that issue but no smoke, replaced the cap and it ran fine.

Personally I like starting with the cheapest thing, so replacing your cap and checking hoses along with a radiator flush would be the cheapest route. But since you had it towed I don't know if cheap is available anymore lol

 

get flush on your radiator/ engine block, replace the radiator cap, thermostats. I highly doubt the the HG give out, oh and make sure check EGR for carbon blockage.