So it was -15 this morning ( -45 with wind chill, yay!) as most of the country is enveloped in this ridiculous cold streak.

I turned my TL over and it turned on in a couple seconds. Better than I expected.

It idled for 2 minutes while I dusted the snow off my car, then I started driving to work and 5 minutes in I noticed 2 things:

1) No heat was being produced from the vents
2) temp gauge shot up and nearly pegged - i caught it 2 ticks away from H

So I immediately pulled off the freeway to a side street - as I was getting there, the gauge started to drop. I got out, smelled the coolant and when I popped the hood the radiator was visibly steaming, and there was coolant sprayed about in the engine bay.

The radiator cap and top of the radiator was dry, there wasn't fluid leaking all over the ground or anything - it was localized to the front of the engine bay, and the overflow reservoir was empty.

I hobbled it over to the stealership keeping the temp gauge at normal levels by just keeping the car at 1500 rpm or less with as minimal gas pedal pressure as possible (so basically cruising at 40 mph in 6th gear). Any throttle above 1/4 would start to raise the temp gauge.

Still the car was not producing any heat. By the time I got to Acura I had been in the car for 20 minutes with no heat. Yeah, my fingers were numb, despite gloves.

Acura just called me and said they are "baffled". They said I lost about a water bottle's worth of coolant, but they added more, pressure-tested the cooling system, tested the fans, idled the car for 20 mins, drove it on the freeway and all was just as normal.

I said well I'm not really comfortable with that resolution. Extreme cold can do a lot of funny things to a car, and while i'd love to just chalk it up to that, we have 0 resolution as to WHERE the coolant came from.

Is it possible there was some blockage? Like there was some spot where the coolant froze? And once it got into acura's shop and warmed up it melted and started flowing again? That still doesn't explain where the coolant came from, but right now I am trying to understand the cause of the temp gauge moving up so sharply, given the radiator was clearly steaming and heated.

any ideas? I was almost sure there was going to be a hairline crack in the radiator somewhere (but it was too cold for me to inspect myself really) and Acura made no mention of it.

I'm still concerned about picking up the car tonight.

 

if you smelled coolant and have no leak, get a new rad cap.... 2 minutes of idles is not enough to make heat...about 3 miles of driving is.... -27f here and the car started up with some protest and i had heat

 

broken plastic overfill cap?

 

yeah i know idling for 2 minutes won't generate heat but i drove it for 5 miles down the freeway.

I'm thinking the thermostat got stuck or radiator cap at this point - agree with you there. Can't be sure but it's all I can come up with right now.

 

OP, what temperature did your coolant test at?

 

i'm assuming you took it to brookfield. i would get it back and get it look at elsewhere as a second opinion. you could take it to wilde honda if you wanted to go the dealer route, or to an independent local mechanic. i have one i'd recommend but it is in franklin which is a bit of a drive. pm me to discuss if you want.

 

I bet you had ice in the motor or radiator. As the motor warmed up and started circulating coolant, it broke up and caused restrictions and heat pockets till it melted form the engine heat.

Check the freeze point of your coolant.

 

acura type 2 is good for -34f so if he has that in there he should be fine... if it is old or another type... all bets are off

 

I was thinking bad thermostat as well. It's pretty bad when the 'experts' say they are 'baffled'. Did they do any type of diagnostics on it, like pressure test the cooling system or check the thermostat to see if it's opening properly when the car is warmed up (they would have to take it out and put it in boiling water to see if the thermostat functions normally)?

I'd go for a second opinion as well- it sounds like the techs where you took the car either really don't know or aren't willing to take the time to diagnose the issue.

I have one more suggestion: if there's no heat in the car, there may be a chance of a heater core obstruction (pretty unlikely, but if present, wouldn't allow the coolant to circulate and would result in overheating).

 

coolant would still flow to properly cool the engine if there wws blockage in the heater core

 

Got it...I wasn't sure.

 

The techs didn't find anything because there was nothing wrong with the car when he got it there. The ice had melted.