Q: Car ran hot and smoked let cool down put antifreeze in resevoir still empty

asked by on July 13, 2017

Was driving car. Ran hot started smoking. Pulled over at gas station noticed low on antifreeze. Poured a whole bottle of antifreeze in reservoir and its still empty

It sounds like you may ether have a leak somewhere or the coolant is being burned in the motor due to a potential blown head cylinder head gasket. A blown head gasket may cause a number of different symptoms. A head gasket that fails between cylinders will generally cause a misfire and potentially compression leaks from one cylinder into another. Low compression will eventually result in a rough idling engine. When the head gasket fails between a cylinder and the coolant port, coolant may leak into the cylinder causing it to be burnt with the fuel charge in the combustion chamber. This often results in misfires on startup, especially after the engine is run, turned off and restarted and in some cases may result in the engine not maintaining enough cylinder compression to even run or start. This type of failure may not always show with a compression test. I would recommend having an expert from YourMechanic come to your location to properly diagnose the symptoms you describe.

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