Coolant Leak/Heater not working

Over the weekend on a two hour drive, going up a steep hill (only the last 5 mins of the drive), the radiator cap blew off ( I assume, because it was off) and coolant was sprayed all over the engine compartment, emptying the radiator of fluid. The "check engine" light came on of course.

Once I was able to get to a gas station and refill the coolant, the light went off of course. But now, there seems to be a leak that I can't directly see, and the cabin heater no longer works, the blower works, but just ambient air, no heat.

Any ideas on what the problem is?

Thanks,

John

 

heater core?

 

Heater core is normally high, so if you are low on coolant the heater won't work.

You sure it blew off, and someone didn't take it off and forget to put it back on? If it blew off you would have heard it. They don't come off easy.

And when you filled it, are you sure you filled it all the way (overflow tank too)? That could be why the heater core isn't filling up. just a little low can keep the heater from not working.

And, the what seems to be a leak could be fluid that is still hanging around in the engine compartment coming out.

If it did blow off, chances are real good that it popped a leak somewhere else which you'll need to find and you would have probably been pretty overheated, in which case you have another bigger problem.

 

Depending on how much coolant blew out, you might have air bubbles or air lock in the system. Remove rad cap, open your heater control up to bust, make sure your rad is full and start engine. Once it warms up, the thermostat will open allowing coolant flow to the whole system. Add coolant as necessary to completely fill everything up. Make sure that the reservoir is full as well.

There might be a post of this forum somewhere which details the location of an air 'vent' bleeder valve in the system, but I could be mistaken.

Did the rad cap blow right off? The cap has a two stage opening sequence which should prevent this. An over pressure in the system should bleed into the reservoir tank?

 

The cap should vent anything over its rated pressure to the engine compartment. Regular expansion goes into the overflow.
+1 on air lock.
Did the cap blow completely off the radiator, or just vent?

 

I think most likely Jiffy Lube didn't put the cap back on properly, as they topped it off a few weeks ago.

 

Take it back to them and have them fix it. Coolant aint cheap.

 

Sounds like you have air in your coolant system. You need to keep squeezing those hoses to burp air out of the system. Your coolant reservoir level will keep falling until all the air is out.

 

Might be a thermostat. That would cause the same symptoms.