05 V50t5 Coolant loss but did not overheat?

[ThinAir]

Hello all,

Driving home on Friday I noticed that even after the car was warmed up I was getting no heat. Once near my place i noticed steam coming from under my hood. I pulled over and popped the hood-coolant was everywhere. I added what I had with me in the car and got back to my place. Today I picked up some more coolant and as soon as I added it, it was pouring out of what looks to be a blown out upper radiator hose, but I can't be sure because the airbox is in the way. Anyway, I'm going to try to sort it as soon as possible (and put on a Cold air intake so I don't have to deal with the box when I change my oil). So why, even with massive coolant loss did my thermostat read normal? It has been ridiculously cold here in Colorado, but I can't imagine it is that cold. Also, the oil looks OK and there was no smoking....I hope I dodged the headgasket/warped head bullet.

Thanks,

J

[rugbygrrl_15]

J,

I'm not really experienced, but I would start with the thermostat and the engine temp sensor. In older cars the thermostat is cheap and simple to fix, and when they go, they can cause the car to overheat and the needle in the instrument panel won't raise. I had a 240 with a sticky thermostat and it could act that way.

Cause you have a newer car, my next thought is about sensors, they're everywhere and they love to fail. If your engine temp sensor is faulty it won't tell the car's computer to turn the fan on for the engine and to blow air over the engine to warm up the car's cabin. Also a bad sensor won't transmit accurate information to the dashboard. Check your fuses. You'll only know for sure why it overheated until you get it hooked up to a scanner. The scanner will also tell you if there was additional damage caused by the car overheating.

Sorry about your car,
S

[ThinAir]

Well, I dodged that bullet thank goodness. Car is fine, radiator hose was not. I am still puzzled as to why the car stayed stable even with little to no coolant in the system. But I guess that mystery will wait to be solved on another day. On a different note-holy crap are these cars hard to work on as compared to my 99.