Overheat, coolant leak, limp mode, dealer
 

So I just got my car back about a week ago from the collision shop because I was involved in a small fender bender. My radiator support needed to be replaced and because of that, my insurance adjuster advised that all my coolant had to be removed and replaced.

Long story short, I was driving to Cerritos and as soon as I got off the freeway I smelled coolant. I immediately saw my water temps had shot up all the way to the last dot. I tried to pull over and my car starts to stutter, if that makes sense. SES light goes off and I could not rev past 1000 rpm (not that I even wanted to). Im assuming this is limp mode? I pulled over and let the car cool down some and looked under the car, noticing coolant leaking everywhere. Popped the hood, noticed the coolant tank was completely empty. Waited about 30 min, drove really slow with the heater on to the dealer and they are now looking into it. One of the techs advised that it seems like an air bubble caused the coolant to leak out of the tank through the overflow tube. He said these cars are designed to be able to drive in case of emergency with little to no water. Oil is different but water no problem.

My question is, could this have damaged my engine? I didn't really realize how far I was driving with high temps because nothing happened until I got off the freeway. I mean the SES light didn't even go off until the car went into limp mode. Could the guys that drained and refilled my coolant from the collision center not tightened something and thats what caused it? Im not really familiar with the cooling system on this car os I don't even know where else to start troubleshooting.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for any responses!

Engine is probably okay if you didn't drive like that for too long. Loose upper radiator hose maybe?

Good luck dude

Thanks man, Im trying to stay positive and hoping this doesn't turn into one those reoccurring cooling issues or even worse one of those replacing engine issues.

Modern engines are pretty tough, so your head gaskets are probably fine

Cossie is right, your engine will be fine. Could you pin point the source of the leak? An air bubble in the water system could absolutely cause a temporary spike in coolant temperature but I am not sure about causing an overflow. Are all the coolant hoses securely sealed?

That's what I aim to find out. They are giving it a thorough inspection. I told them I wanted them to check every hose! Chris we still need to meet up man.

Yes sir, I am getting back to Newport on Sunday so we will meet up next week for sure. I will let you know when I'm back!

Ah man, I'll be out of town for the next two weeks for work. Bad timing but I'll hit u up when I get back.

Sounds like they didn't fill it up right, IIRC there is a air bleed in the system somewhere, sound slike they filled the rad and figured good to go.

Hmmm interesting thanks for the insight.

I've never heard of a bubble causing a major leak. More than likely a house wasn't installed properly.

I had a coolant fitting pop out of my head on an old Civic after some hooning one night... Coolant completely leaked everywhere, temp was sky high... So I limped the car to my destination which was like 1/2 mile away and all was fine after I let it cool and refilled it w/ water. Drained water and refilled with coolant/distilled water as soon as I got home the next morning and the car ran great.

I'm sure your car is going to be fine.

Thanks man this is good info!

No problem. Another up side to my fitting exploding out of the head was that it was a great reason to spend the night at the chicks house. I think my car was a wing man.

And when I say the car was 100% fine after it happened, I mean it. It was an EG Civic w/ a mildly built B16 that had like 3500 miles when this happened. It was a weekend/toy car and pretty much stayed in the garage until I wanted to thrash it. I really beat the crap outta that engine and it loved every second of it. After I abused it for about 6 months, I traded it to a friend for a Jeep. He beat on it worse than I did, and at about 9k miles he blew the transmission up. The transmission was repaired and the car was sold to a 3rd owner who is still driving the car to this day afaik.