My son Facetimed me today and had smoke coming out the hood right above the passenger tire. He got out of the car and showed me the underside, there was a pretty steady flow of coolant coming out near that passenger tire. When I got there, the coolant revisor was totally empty. I filled it up and had him turn the car back on and idle for 5 minutes. No leak at all. Turned the car off and still no leak. I drove it 20 minutes home, no leak and the revisor is still totally full. He parks the car in the garage and we have never seen it leak before.

Any idea what could of happened?

Thanks in advance for the help

 

May have been over full to begin with. Where it says full cold/hot, that is very specific. If the car is cold and but fill it to or above the full hot line, then it's likely going spill out of the reservoir. If it comes out boiling, then it will steam all over the side of the car. Couple things to check, make sure the hoses are all in good shape, top bottom radiator, and even the tube that goes to the overflow, make sure it's connected well. Look over the heater core hoses, you can't seem them without removing some stuff if I recall.

Last, if the radiator cap has never been replaced, on a 10 year old car, might not be a bad idea. It's probably less then $20. The spring and valve on them sometimes go bad, which may cause them to stick open, which could also cause it to push more out to the reservoir then it should have, which would lead to the same symptom.

 

Something else to think about, if the coolant system hasn't been flushed, filth buildup can cause things to flow poorly, meaning the system will overheat regularly. Think the interval is going to be at minimum every 50,000 miles. Most people never do it, so it's something else to consider. You can pay firestone to do it for like $100 or less. They can also look over the hoses and give you a recommendation. But even with that, if hoses haven't been changed, that too is likely over due.