So, i pull into my parking spot this morning after work and notice that there is smoke or steam coming from the passenger side of the engine bay under the hood..."oh crap" I think to myself.

Open it up and the back of the engine bay is all sprayed with coolant...sizzling away (whew! i thougt i might have an engine fire at first). After inspecting around in there i see that there is a good sized gash in the upper radiator hose right by where it connects on the top side of the engine...the direction of the spray coincides with this leak in the hose. Coolant level in the reservour is okay, so I figure i just need a new hose.

I just have 2 questions though regarding this that i couldn't find in any other threads.
1)is that upper rad hose supposed to be warm...because it was quite hot to the touch.
2)is there anyhting else in the cooling system i should be replacing when i get the new hose, or anything else I should be looking for that might have been damaged. Like i said, coolant level looked okay, and also my temp gauge wasn't above normal so the hose might have burst shortly before i parked.

Thanks!
*jared

 

1. Yes the upper Rad hose should be very hot to the touch.
2. Check your water pump. There is a hole in the water pump that starts dumping coolant when your water pump bearing is going out. (Its basically a safegaurd before a real catastrophe occurs)

You should be able to check the water pump by following the leak/coolant. If it is the water pump, it will leak down the crank pulley from the hole in the pump. Just use a good flashlight, you'll see it.

I hope for your sake that it is just the radiator hose. The water pump is a real pain to replace, and expensive.

 

it's funny to see this post because the exact same thing happened to me the other day. the upper radiator hose in the same spot got a small gash and was spraying coolant. dont ask me how it happened but i don't think you have much to worry about, (of course checking the water pump is still a good suggestion). to be honest, i just slapped on some chewed bubblegum and paper tied on with a girls hair band thing and have been driving like that for more than a week. im too busy to fix it. you will need to drain the radiator and you may as well flush it out while you're at it. hopefully you won't be a ghetto as me