downtownandy

Was stuck in traffic here in Los Angeles on a street not a highway. Battery warning light came on and lost power steering. Had less than a half mile to the house. Traffic started moving and I got home, watching the temp gauge and everything else I could think of. As I pulled into the garage steam started coming from front left of car and I parked and turned it off. The front left of engine compartment, and only that part, is covered in water and coolant. Tried to find the source of the bust. Any ideas what might have spewed the water?

floridawriter

Possibly boiling coolant escaping through the overflow tank.

downtownandy

Thanks. I am not super familiar with all the things on this car so I didn't know if there was somewhere that was designed to allow coolant to escape if the car started to overheat. Replacing the idler pulley (broke in this episode) and serpentine belt hopefully today. Fill 'er up with coolant and see how it goes.

pjg

Make sure all of the pulleys spin free on the waterpump, alt, AC compressor, etc.

downtownandy

So the idler pulley busted, which is probably what shredded the belt. Replaced the pulley, replaced the belt, poured water into the coolant reservoir and it started dripping from the front left of the car. I narrowed the leak down to a spot in the hard black plastic at the driver side of the radiator (see attached pic). Does this look like something I can just sand and put some epoxy on? Or is a full radiator replacement in order?

floridawriter

The side tank is cracked. In all likelihood you will need to replace the radiator. They are not expensive.

pjg

Parts.com looks to be the cheapest for OEM.

https://www.parts.com/index.cfm?fuse...LITER-RADIATOR

Khan 55

Apparently agents over here in South Africa want over $800