My car loss all its coolant today while driving all of a sudden. The car started overheating and the car shut itself down. Hopefully a head gasket isn't blown.

I refilled the radiator with coolant and it started leaking rapidly under the car near the midpipe area. See picture below. I just replaced the radiator and hoses about 1/2 year ago. Am i still safe to drive the car over to my local repair shop which is about 3 blocks away or should I have it towed to the mechanic? Maybe it's the heater core hose?

 

What do you mean 'the car shut itself down'?

I'm not sure if it does that... You can melt the engine fairly bad if you're driving without coolant for even a minute.

 

dont drive it without coolant.

you may have already damaged the heads, by driving it without coolant already.


i suspect it's a hose if it's leaking in the middle of the midpipe.

 

dont risk it and just tow it to be safe.

 

drove the car about 4 blocks to my mechanic and they found the heater control valve was broken and was the cause of the coolant leaking. After replacing the heater control valve to the tune of $135 for parts, labor and coolant, there's no more leaks and the car isn't overheating anymore.

question now is if the heads or engine gasket are damaged...

i drove it on the freeway and on local streets for about 20 minutes and so far so good. CEL are still on and my reader is unable to clear them. Hopefully, they clear up on their own.

 

Any idea what the code is? You shouldn't get a check engine light from overheating.

It appears your leak wasn't all that fast, and I'm assuming it was still leaking when you got to your destination, so it still had some coolant in it? However, you should be aware, the engine only knows the coolant temp. And it only measures it in one spot. If you don't have enough coolant to get to the top of the engine, the coolant temp sensor has nothing to measure and will be wrong. Driving around with the needle on the H should be 'acceptable' short term. However, the real worry is you have no idea what the actual upper cylinder temp was, since you couldn't measure it. And of course the upper portion of the cylinder, where all the heat is created, is the first to loose coolant.

 

shouldnt have drove it


that $125 will most likely turn into $1025