Dumping coolant after after short drive

[Stiles13]

Went for a short drive,about 20 minutes. Smelled coolant smell and temp was about 190. returned home and after 5 minutes coolant started pouring out, obviously under pressure. tank in trunk totally emptied out. I let the engine cool down and restarted, cant find a leak yet.ideas?

[MWS]

If possible, check location of leak. For what is worth (and I'm sure I'm not the first to offer this) but check the version of coolant cap. Caps on these cars are a known issue and a failure will result in dumping your coolant...check around rear passenger tire for signs of coolant.

I know the cap seems like an odd culprit, but it happened to me, and many many others on this forum.

[rick3000]

Sounds like an air bubble in the coolant system, it's a common issue that can make all of the coolant drain from the overflow above the passenger rear wheel. Have you topped off or messed with the coolant recently?

[oldskool73]

Exactly the same think happened to me over the weekend, only after a 2 hour drive in 38c/100f heat. Reached our destination and as soon as I turned it off the car promptly dumped the entire expansion tank on the floor out the overflow by the rear right wheel.

I've known I had a version 1 cap on there since I've had it, but it's always been fine... until it's not, haha! Bought a new version cap yesterday, topped it up, am going to run it for a while with the bleeder valve open to free any trapped air (also sat for 10 minutes with nose down on a steep carpark ramp last night to help) and hoping that fixes it.

The caps are printed on top 996.106.447.0x ... if your 'x' is less than 4 upgrade to the newer one, they only cost about $25US from a dealer.

[speedyspaghetti]

Is the trunk under the carpet wet? If it is, it's your coolant tank that cracked. I had it happen to me last summer and I got a new tank and cap.

[Stiles13]

Originally Posted by oldskool73

Exactly the same think happened to me over the weekend, only after a 2 hour drive in 38c/100f heat. Reached our destination and as soon as I turned it off the car promptly dumped the entire expansion tank on the floor out the overflow by the rear right wheel.

I've known I had a version 1 cap on there since I've had it, but it's always been fine... until it's not, haha! Bought a new version cap yesterday, topped it up, am going to run it for a while with the bleeder valve open to free any trapped air (also sat for 10 minutes with nose down on a steep carpark ramp last night to help) and hoping that fixes it.

The caps are printed on top 996.106.447.0x ... if your 'x' is less than 4 upgrade to the newer one, they only cost about $25US from a dealer.

Went through the whole process of refilling and draining and this seemed to work after a 30 minute run. I had not opened the cap previously since I bought the car 2 months ago. New cap should arrive today! Thanks to everyone on here! In just a short time I have learned a lot about these quirky little beasts!

[Cunningr]

I had same similar issue last year, never found a leak or reason for over flow other than the mechanic had the coolant serviced to just under the max line. My guess was the coolant was serviced in wither and maybe the giant difference in winter to summer temp here caused the excess coolant to over flow, as soon as it was a little below the max line never lost any more fluid. The other possible was the cap crossed up, from me checking the fluid.

Anyway hope your good to go!

[jdlmodelt]

cap not threaded on properly or water pump is failing.

Originally Posted by Stiles13

Went for a short drive,about 20 minutes. Smelled coolant smell and temp was about 190. returned home and after 5 minutes coolant started pouring out, obviously under pressure. tank in trunk totally emptied out. I let the engine cool down and restarted, cant find a leak yet.ideas?

[Stiles13]

All is well, cap failed. Replaced with newest version, 500 miles since without issue, and driven hard!