Hi,

Pulled onto my neighborhood street, after driving 40+ highway miles from work. 2007 maxima se w/ 116k miles. 300 ft from my driveway, the check engine light comes on, I smell engine coolant and my temp gauge sky rockets. I limp the car into the driveway and shut off the engine. The engine is steaming and coolant is massively leaking on the front right side of the engine compartment. It was dark so I couldn't see the color of the fluid, but later ID'd it as coolant the next morning. Took the radiator cap off and it smelled the same as when it suddenly happened.

I have very little auto repair experience and before taking to a dealership/mechanic would like to know if the type of leak described is a water pump failure, radiator hose failure, radiator failure, or all of the above. Or something else entirely.

Thanks in advance.

 

Water pumps rarely leak "massively". So that leaves the radiator itself or a hose. Because you say "massive", I'd guess a hose ruptured.

However, you posted this in the wrong forum which gets you a much slower response. The Garage forum is to discuss the garage itself, tools and things like that. Car problems should be posted in the appropriate "Generation" forum, which in your case is the 6th Generation Forum.

 

Ahhh..ok. Thanks for the response.

Think it's the head gasket though. Research matches the symptoms I observed.

Thanks again.

 

Take some pics of where the fluid is...it will help to diagnose. I would not necessarily jump right to head gasket though unless you have some other symptoms. Start small then work toward the major. Also,just to clarify, is it leaking on the driver side or passenger side? I know you said "right" but sometimes thats open for interpretation