Coolant Loss Story OT

[55 Fargo]

Yesterday morning my Wife calls on her way to work and says, there is steam or fog from under the hood. The vehicle 1994 Ford Ranger Truck, with a 3 litre engine, and 140000 miles

I immediately ask if she drove through a big section of road with melted snow, she says no, all is frozen this morning or dry.

I ask her how if the heat gauge is registering high, she says no, then tells me there is no more steam under hood.

I figure it was water or slush splashed up in there somehow.

On her way home from work she says, it was leaking a bit of anti-freeze, but the heat gauge was normal, unless she was idling at a stop light, then it would rise.

I now know, the coolant level is dropped, but allow here to drive home, as it is a cold day, and the engine is not overheating.

Sure enough, 1 heater hose had split a hole in it.

I go get more heater hose, and 2 gallons of pre-mix,(first time I ever bought this), and proceed to repair the problem, go the hoses swapped in about 2 minutes, no need to drain system down,. it was drained enough. I had to add a gallon and a half to bring this cooling system back to level.

Now what a tough little truck, she drove a 100 miles like this, it could have been worse, but there was enough coolant in the system, and the hole in the heater hose, did not allow the system to pressurize I guess, and the rest of the antifreeze was onlyt very slowly leaking.

I did not tell wife I repaired this hose last summer, but only cut-off the bad end section, this I will never do again, as heater hose is only a $1.25 a foot here......Fred

[Young Ed]

Some of the modern vehicles are tough like that. Twice I've driven my dakota home with water spewing out. Once when the top tank of the radiator split off from the core and a second time when the water pump went out. The water pump was spraying water so bad I thought my alternator was the issue because the gauge was all over the place. That just turned out to be because the belt was getting soaked and slipping. Now for the past couple months I've been seeing a tiny green dot in the garage. Hasn't leaked enough to even drain the overflow yet but I suspect I've got an issue coming

[55 Fargo]

Some of the modern vehicles are tough like that. Twice I've driven my dakota home with water spewing out. Once when the top tank of the radiator split off from the core and a second time when the water pump went out. The water pump was spraying water so bad I thought my alternator was the issue because the gauge was all over the place. That just turned out to be because the belt was getting soaked and slipping. Now for the past couple months I've been seeing a tiny green dot in the garage. Hasn't leaked enough to even drain the overflow yet but I suspect I've got an issue coming

Ed, you know this is the trouble with the climate in Minneapolis and worse in Winnipeg, it is so darn cold in winter, it is had on everything. I find 90 % of my break downs or something breaking is in winter or toward spring, after the vehicle has been subjected to a lot of sub-zero temps....Fred

[Don Coatney]

I once lost most of the coolant in my F-150 due to a leak. The temperature gauge never budged from the normal reading but my heater quit putting out warm air and that is the only indication I had of a problem. My theory is once the coolant level drops below the temperature gauge probe the gauge will never show a hot condition as the probe must be submerged in coolant to work.

[Young Ed]

Actually most of my repairs in the dakota have been when its really hot out. Except the radiator that was a winter deal I think.

[55 Fargo]

Actually most of my repairs in the dakota have been when its really hot out. Except the radiator that was a winter deal I think.

Uusually after a long cold Minnesota winter, then summer kicks in and the problems show up.....LOL