Bunchies

iTrader: (1)

I was partaking in a photoshoot yesterday, driving constantly around 4000-5000 rpm for a good 15-20 minutes. As expected, my car got pretty warm. However, after the last run down the road, I noticed after I parked the car that some coolant was leaking from under my front bumper. I freaked the hell out, and turned off my car. At the time of turning it off, oil pressure was normal and temperature was right in the middle where it should be. I opened the hood and noticed that the coolant was leaking out of a tube in the cap. It seems like the tube was designed for extra coolant to run out. After a bit, the leaking turned into a mere trickle, and then completely stopped. In any case, I waited for the car to cool down, lifted up the cap, and noticed that the coolant was completely full. You could not have poured anymore coolant in there.

So, I started up my car and drove the rest of the night with no adverse effects. However, I would like to know whether or not what happened was normal. This is my first 7, so I'm not used to coolant spilling out of tubes and fun stuff like that. :p

edit: I'm assuming that this was the overflow bottle, as it was a little white plastic reservoir with the tube.

Gene

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like there was too much coolant in your overflow bottle, so when the engine got hot and displaced some into the bottle, it overflowed and spilled. If you look on the side of the bottle, there are low and high marks, and the high is only halfway up the side. Wait for your car to get completely cold (like overnight), and pop the radiator cap and have a look to see if the system is full. If it is, good. If not, top it off. Then drain the coolant overflow bottle so that it's at the full mark, hook everything backup, and see if the problem happens again. If it does you may have a water jacket leak that's letting pressure get into the water, but I'm guessing that your overflow bottle was just overfilled.

NCross

iTrader: (18)

check the coolent level in your radiator. Mine has two places to fill up the coolent (aftermarket radiator) and the radiator always needs a little bit more than the cap by the engine.

Bunchies

iTrader: (1)

I assume that if I do need to refill the coolant, i do not want to do it in the overflow bottle? :p

Just checked the levels. The coolant level in the overflow bottle has lowered down to the "full" mark at halfway. I opened the radiator cap, but I didn't really know how to check. There were trace amounts of coolant, but I have no idea how to check the coolant level in the cap. There was no obvious level of coolant that I could see from the radiator cap.